THE Rugby World Cup is heading for Ilkley as the town prepares to host its third major sporting event of the summer.

The Webb Ellis Cup, won so famously by England in 2003, will be on display at Ilkley Rugby Club's Stacks Field headquarters on Wednesday, August 5.

Following hot on the heels of the highly-successful Aegon Ilkley Trophy and the Town Centre Cycle Races, it is another major coup for Ilkley sport.

The Webb Ellis Cup arrived in England this week and is going on a 100-day tour ahead of the World Cup tournament which starts on Friday, September 18 when England play Fiji at Twickenham.

Tom Gillon is co-ordinating the arrangements for the cup's visit to Stacks Field.

He said: "It is a great honour to be chosen as one of the clubs who will be showing off the World Cup.

"It will be on display between 6pm and 9pm and members of the public will have the chance to have their picture taken with it.

"We will be staging junior rugby and touch rugby activities from 3pm in the afternoon and there is an Rugby Union roadshow which accompanies the cup.

"We will be putting on refreshments for all the people who come along.

"The objective is to encourage young people to become engage with rugby union."