Amex

Samoa at Northampton's Franklin's Gardens will be followed by Australia at Brighton's Amex Stadium in England's pool campaign, before possible quarter and semi-finals at Bristol's Ashton Gate.

Fabian Hurzeler enjoyed a very good first season at the Amex, and Brighton have been working the markets in their usual fashion, with smart acquisitions of young, developing players.

But there's another youngster ready to leap off the Amex talent conveyor belt.

The subtext was obvious: Amex is going to raise the Platinum card’s annual fee from $695 to something truly eye-watering.

Amex’s marketing pitch was most definitely not that if you used the card in a savvy enough way, you would get back what you put in.