Guinness made of More
A drop of the black stuff has become an integral part of watching rugby in Britain.

Indeed, half of all the pints sold at Twickenham for England’s 
international matches in recent years have been Guinness.

But the 82,000 fans who have tickets for England’s first match against Fiji will be unable to watch the game with their traditional tipple because of a £20million marketing deal.

Heineken has secured the rights to be one of the six main sponsors of the Rugby World Cup.

As part of the deal, the brewer has insisted that only its brands of beer can be sold to fans inside all the 13 stadiums in England and Wales.

It means that drinkers will have to make do with a £5 pint of Murphy’s Irish Stout, which is owned by Heineken, as an equivalent to the more popular Guinness.

As well as Murphy’s and Heineken, the stadiums will also sell John Smiths, Strongbow and Bulmers. All are expected to cost £5 a pint.

Last night it emerged that Heineken’s multi-million pound deal may have contributed to the higher cost of the pints, compared to the typical £4 paid for a pint at many Premier League football grounds.

Heineken has also managed to put an ‘exclusion zone’ clause into its contract, which means that only its beers can be marketed and sold within 500 metres of the stadiums. Pubs within the exclusion zones are exempt.

However, Heineken will have an army of sellers serving pints on the streets, as well as pop-up bars, to fend off the competition
Rugby fans have become used to ordering Guinness at international games in Britain, particularly because the company sponsors the annual Six Nations tournament.

Supporters who attended the recent world cup warm up games at Twickenham against France and Ireland were able to buy the black stuff.

An average of 82,000 pints of Guinness are sold at every England international at Twickenham – equivalent to one beer per fan.

The record was set in November where 100,447 pints were sold at England’s game against New Zealand.

Heineken, which will feature in the new James Bond film Spectre, has long been associated with the Rugby World Cup having first sponsored the contest in 1995.

 It also backs the European rugby competition the Heineken Cup.
A Heineken spokesman said:

 ‘We are sending 10million special limited edition bottles of Heineken to all the venues, fan parks and selected supermarkets.

‘Rugby has been in our DNA for 20 years and fans will be used to drinking our beers.’

Despite losing out in the sponsorship stakes, Guinness has launched a slick advertising campaign to encourage drinkers to turn to the black stuff in pubs.

These feature the moving stories of the gay Welsh player Gareth Thomas and of South African player Ashwin Willemse, who was in a notorious Cape Town gang before he won the world cup in 2007.

A record 2.25million tickets have been sold for the world cup and only 5per cent remain unsold.