体坛英语新闻：Rugby World Cup attendance passes 2 million

LONDON, Oct. 19 (Xinhua) -- The total attendance for the 2015 Rugby World Cup has exceeded two million after the quarterfinal matches last weekend.

Organizers said that the four quarterfinal matches at Twickenham and Millennium Stadiums welcomed over 300,000 fans as South Africa, New Zealand, Argentina and Australia progressed to the semifinal stage.

Over 2.4 million tickets have been sold across the 48 matches, with an average of 97 percent of tickets sold across all 13 venues.

Managing Director of England Rugby 2015, Steve Brown, said: "Four thrilling quarterfinal matches across the weekend have now seen the attendance for the tournament exceed 2 million fans. With the Fanzones full of fans again this weekend and social and digital media reach continuing to rise, we are pleased with the continuing success of the tournament and are looking forward to the semifinals this weekend."

The quarterfinal weekend saw over 60,000 people watch the eight matches in the Richmond, Cardiff, Exeter and Fanzones. This brings the total Fanzone attendance across the Tournament to over 830,000.

This weekend will see a Fanzone opened in Central London's Trafalgar Square. It will be open from 10:00 until 16:00 on Friday, Saturday and Sunday. It will host a live screening of the final, open from 10:00 to 20:00 on Saturday October 31.

The semifinal matches will be held at Twickenham Stadium this weekend, with South Africa playing New Zealand on Saturday and Argentina taking on Australia on Sunday.