The half time break in matches at this year’s World Cup will be extended from 10 to 12 minutes, organisers have confirmed so you have 120 more seconds to load up on beer and hot dogs!!!

“International matches around the world vary from anywhere between 10 minutes and up towards 13 minutes,” the IRB’s World Cup tournament manager Kit McConnell told Fairfax.

“International matches in the northern hemisphere go to around twelve and a half minutes including matches the All Blacks have played in recent northern hemisphere tours, so it’s not unusual.”

It is still three minutes shorter than the Aviva Premiership which changed when Guinness was the main sponsor to allow more time to consume the black stuff. Wasps are one of the teams that regularly comes back out after 10 though to do a second warm-up.

McConnell added: “The reason the English premiership went to 15 minutes is to help out the spectators and alleviate the crush on toilets and food and beverages at half-time. “Obviously there’s broadcast considerations also in terms of half-time analysis and commercial breaks.

“When we looked at what was happening around the world we decided 12 minutes was probably a very good result to balance all those considerations.”