Tickets for most of the pool matches at the 2003 Rugby World Cup will go on sale on 20 October, the Australian Rugby Union (ARU) has announced.

Matt Carroll, head of the ARU's World Cup organising team, said that plans for the competition were progressing on schedule.

"It's coming together," he said. "But there are a lot of things to do and the schedule is very tight, so we don't have any fat in terms of time.

"At the moment we're very heavily involved in bedding down all the arrangements for visiting teams - mainly accommodation, transport and training venues."

Late disruption

The competition was originally to have been jointly held by Australia and New Zealand.

But the Kiwis were excluded six months ago following a bitter dispute over commercial rights.

More than one million tickets will go on sale to the Australian public next week.

However, tickets to the biggest matches, including the first match, the semi-finals and the final, will not be available until February.

They will be allotted through a public ballot in Australia, while international sales will be handled separately.