BBC fanfares Rugby World Cup theme

The BBC today announced that it had chosen the theme music for the Rugby Union World Cup which kicks off in Australia in October.

Following a three-month competition where celebrities were invited to send in recordings of rugby-related songs, a shortlist was announced last week and voted on by a large cross-section of BBC executives.

The surprise winner was Russell Watson's Mayor of Bayswater (the hairs on her dicki di do) which is now set to be played at the start of all the BBC's planned 4000 hours of coverage. Watson, who sang at the opening ceremony of the Commonwealth Games, will also be releasing the tune as a single at the end of September.

Head of sport, Hemel Hempstead, was reportedly ecstatic that the song — famed for its line "One black one, one white one, and one with a bit of shite on" — has been chosen from the three shortlisted.

The song's roots can be traced back to a mention in the Saxon Chronicles, where Ethelred the Ready and his army sang Ye Mayore of Bayswatere as it was then called at a battle against Viking raiders, and it is this heritage that is thought to be the reason for the decision.

Rugby chiefs however have registered their dismay at the choice. A spokesman for the International Rugby Committee said: "I can't believe they chose that. It's far too long to be condensed into a 45-second theme tune without losing the integrity of the piece. Pavarotti's beautifully sung version of Sit on my Face was by far the best choice, short, succinct and heart-wrenching."

Jeremy Guscott whined: "It's a terrible choice. Dame Kiri te Kanawa's Bestiality's Best brought tears to my eyes, sweat to my balls and summed up the violent poetry of rugger at its finest."

ITV bosses chose their theme song last week, with front runner Lesley Garrett's Fuc*k Him being eschewed in favour of Charlotte Church's much-lauded rendition of Three Old Whores From Winnipeg, which she will debut at the Royal Variety Show in June.