The city and the country: Cardiff, England and the 2015 Rugby World Cup

Major international sporting events have long been recognised for the role they play in city and/or nation branding. The 2015 Rugby World Cup, England 2015, was promoted as the world’s biggest sporting event of the year. In addition to the 12 stadiums in England staging matches, games also took place at the Millennium Stadium in Cardiff. Cardiff is not located in England but is the capital city of neighbouring Wales, a place where rugby union is the national sport and England its biggest rival. This paper looks at the incorporation of a Welsh city in an event hosted by England where the VisitEngland promotional campaign was based upon images of ‘England’s green and pleasant land’. Drawing upon the work of the cultural theorist Raymond Williams, it considers some of the issues shaping tourism promotion and assesses the imagery and discourse relating to a city that sits outside the borders of the host nation of an event.