Town have confirmed that Portman Road is still in the running to be one of the host venues at the 2015 Rugby World Cup.

News that the Blues had put their home forward for use in the oval game’s showpiece tournament first surfaced in 2009, although later that year chief executive Simon Clegg said there had been no subsequent developments.

A national newspaper report earlier in the week named Portman Road amongst a long list of football and rugby grounds — as well as the Olympic Stadium - vying to stage games with rugby chiefs keen to feature venues throughout the country.

A Town spokesman told TWTD that talks are currently in their early stages: “An initial conversation has taken place, no more than that.”

The tournament begins on September 18th 2015 with the final on October 31st and the feasibility of staging games around the regular fixture list is likely to be amongst the issues to be discussed.

If Portman Road is involved in 2015, it won't be the first time the Blues' stadium has hosted rugby. On Monday 1st March 1954 the South Eastern Counties took on the All Blacks while the New Zealanders were on tour in the UK.

On Saturday 18th December 1937 there was an England rugby international trial between the Probables and the Possibles with Prince Obolensky, of whom there is a statue on St Nicholas Street, playing.

Portman Road has staged other sports with a hockey international between Great Britain and West Germany having been played in the summer of 1968.

Photo: Action Images

Talbs77 added 19:17 - Sep 12 As long as th pitch isnt damaged, it could prove to be a decent income for the club. However why is Clegg trying to sort rugby at the ground when he has far more pressing issues to deal with that have aleady been highlighted.
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emergencylime added 19:22 - Sep 12 I heard that if the Guam rugby team qualify they will be based at Playford Road.
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suffolkpunchdrunk added 19:29 - Sep 12 Apparently we will have to wait until then to see some new faces emerge from the home dressing room!
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blue78 added 19:45 - Sep 12 Not a lot of news coming out of the club lately got a bad feeling no new CBs in time for sat !!
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cartman1972 added 20:06 - Sep 12 Who gives a flying turd about this story.....waiting on football related stories not this tosh
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TimmyH added 21:11 - Sep 12 where's the back up defense?? who cares about rugby.
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Strikes added 21:13 - Sep 12 Why not? We haven't seen a line out at Portman Road since Adam Tanner left.
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norfolk_mighty_horse added 21:26 - Sep 12 It would be a fantastic opportunity to showcase our stadium and what suffolk can offer to visitors, a possible well needed boost to the local economy. i think some people need to think of the wider picture and embrace other sports which could also benefit the growing wastlines of the obese children of our beloved town.
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Tractamatt added 22:17 - Sep 12 I hope Jewell & co will take the full blame if Smith drops a clanger on saturday,will any of Middlesborough player have travelled 10,000 miles and played in an international 3 days before the game,NO. Are the powers that be at Portman Road release a statement explaining the lack of action this fortnight leaving us with no defensive cover with a game against one of the better teams in the league,NO. What we will get either tomorrow or friday is a statement saying how hard it is to sign theese players and how Ipswich have irons in fires and then the links will appear.Then players will be 'on trial' secret players who I suspect will play in masks to hide their identity what with being 'secret' an all but we are led to believe that Marcus Evans and Clegg have only the team at heart. Unless of coarse the plan is to turn our stadium over to rugby wich will turn our pitch into a absolute cabbage patch thus making football impossible so making a defense proper not needed.Come on evans sell up jog on and let someone run us as a football team and not a tax break.COYB!

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Sibelius8 added 22:49 - Sep 12 "Alexharban," in particular, please note that our beloved Portman Road pitch was originally laid over a council rubbish tip. This is precisely why the quality of our playing surface has been so exceptionally good over the years, from Stan Prendegast to Alex Ferguson et al, onwards..... So, any reference to "rubbishing" the pitch is rather ironic! As for the other debate, any extra use of the ground is clearly good for countless reasons, not least commercial ones. Nowadays, the maintenance of playing-surface turf is highly scientific and I doubt if significant damage thereof would be any problem for us. Any top-quality fixtures, in whatever sport, should be encouraged and they can only give the venue more status. However, I would draw the bikini-line on Beach Volleyball!

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suffolkpunch1978 added 23:38 - Sep 12 I love rugby, as stated before, other clubs manage just fine so i would love the world cup to come to portman road. Also a welcome income
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TractorCam added 08:25 - Sep 13 It'd be an odd choice considering i don't recall Portman Road being turned into a rugby pitch, then again it would be good to be one of the host grounds for the rugby world cup
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amydownes added 08:35 - Sep 13 With all due respect to Hull and Watford, when we visited them last year they were the worst football pitches i've ever seen and that was for one reason and one reason only... they share with Rugby. I appreciate that it would bring a lot of money in to the club and surrounding areas but we've worked really hard to fix that pitch and it is looking berautiful again. Elton John's concert had a huge effect on it, remember?

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