3 Days to Rugby World Cup 2015!

The tickets are flying all over the globe, the teams are arriving in the UK and the excitement is building as Rugby World Cup 2015 is set to kick off this Friday! The masters of the logistics scrum are pushing hard behind the scenes.

48 matches, 13 venues, 11 host cities and 89 team base locations – delivering this year’s biggest international sporting event is a massive behind-the-scenes effort. As the Official Logistics Partner of Rugby World Cup 2015, DHL is handling the Tournament’s logistics in collaboration with England Rugby 2015.

On September 18, host England will line up against Fiji for the opening match of Rugby World Cup 2015.

Tickets fly to far-flung places
Although we’ve been planning and preparing for nearly two years now, lately we’ve been busy shipping tickets to eager fans around the world – some 400,000 will be delivered to a total of 160 countries across the globe. 

Invercargill, the southernmost and westernmost city in New Zealand – not to mention one of the southernmost cities in the world – wins this tournament’s ‘furthest ticket delivery’. The small city in the heart of the Southland Plains is a whopping 18,991 kilometers (11,800 miles) from London.

Ascension Island in the South Atlantic Ocean has the honor of being our ‘most remote ticket destination’. Some 1,600 kilometers (1,000 miles) from the coast of Africa and 2,250 kilometers (1,400 miles) from the coast of Brazil, the isolated British territory is roughly midway between the horn of South America and Africa. 

Crouch, bind, set – the logistics scrum
Ticket distribution is only one piece of the complex logistics puzzle DHL is solving before, during and after the six-week Tournament. We’re also handling the teams’ equipment, stadium infrastructure, volunteer uniforms, anti-doping transports and more. Think of it as a logistics scrum: each part needs to bind and work together to be successful.

Items such as scrum machines, tackle bags, ice baths and balls all have to be moved across 89 team base locations, often overnight.

The teams are already arriving and after getting their team kits – which average some four tons of materials – into the country, we’ll also be moving them to the various playing venues and team bases in England and Wales. Items such as scrum machines, tackle bags, ice baths and balls all have to be moved across 89 team base locations, often overnight.

We have 26 18-ton vehicles in place to do this and we expect to drive nearly 100,000 kilometers (62,000 miles) over the next six weeks. 

The most difficult item is undoubtedly the bulky scrum machines due to their sheer size and awkward shape. The most delicate item will be the coveted Webb Ellis Cup.

Great is in the detail
The challenges are certainly not foreign to DHL. We not only handled logistics at RWC 2011, we are also behind the scenes at many international sporting events, including Formula 1 and Formula E, the all-new fully electric race series. Meticulous planning has been the name of the game. 

With this level of detail, Rugby World Cup 2015 is well set to deliver some of the greatest on-pitch moments in rugby history.

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