* Sales revenue reaches 75% of target with over two months to go

* Ticket sales open Monday July 4 at 9am

* Thousands of lowest price tickets still available for most matches

Ticket sales revenue for Rugby World Cup 2011 now totals NZ$200m which means Tournament Organiser Rugby New Zealand 2011 has now reached 75% of its revenue target. This reflects £16 million of sales that have occurred over the last six weeks.

“This is a significant milestone,” said RNZ 2011 CEO Martin Snedden. “It is a great place to be with the final ticket phase beginning on Monday.  Prior to RWC 2011, the highest revenue-generating event in New Zealand’s history was the 2005 British & Irish Lions Tour, which grossed £13m. As of today, we have achieved eight times the ticket revenue for that event. We have now sold just over 900,000 tickets which underlines how popular this event is going to be.”

RNZ 2011 is forecasting total sales revenue of NZ$268.5m based on expected ticket sales of 1.35m from the 48 Tournament matches.

Recent ticket sales have been driven by the resale of tickets to the eight matches reallocated as a result of the Christchurch earthquake and further offers of tickets to those who entered the ballots for the semi-finals and Final, as well as further sales of travel and hospitality packages.

“This coming Monday, at 9am, the final phase of ticketing for RWC 2011 gets underway. We’re urging fans to quickly take advantage of this sales period and secure the seats they want to witness Rugby at its best.  There will be tickets available for most matches other than the Final. This includes the semi-finals and the quarter-finals,” said Snedden.

“For most of the matches on sale Monday, there are still lots of tickets available in the lowest priced seating categories. For more than half the pool matches this means that fans can buy tickets for as little as £16m1 or £21m1 and take their kids for half that price. This could be the last time we will see the 20 best teams in the world battling it out for the Webb Ellis Cup in our own backyard, so we hope Kiwi fans in particular seize the opportunity to get ringside seats at the biggest sporting event of 2011.” added RNZ 2011 CEO Martin Sneddan.

The public ticket sales period begins at 9am on Monday, July 4 with tickets for the pool matches available online at www.rugbyworldcup.com/tickets Tickets for knock-out matches, excluding the Final, go on sale Tuesday July 5.

Fans can guarantee Finals tickets by purchasing Corporate Hospitality Packages from Official Corporate Hospitality Agents or Travel Packages from Official Travel Agents. For more information and a list of agents, visit www.rth2011.com