Northern Edition

Select Edition

Northern Northern
Southern Southern
Global Global
New Zealand New Zealand
France France

England pick seaside town as Rugby World Cup base camps revealed

(Photo by Alex Davidson/The RFU Collection via Getty Images)

England have chosen a coastal base camp that looks across the Channel to Hastings for the duration of their pool games at next year’s Rugby World Cup in France. Each qualified team was offered three options and Eddie Jones’ squad have decided to be based at Le Touquet-Paris-Plage, a small seaside town, to prepare for the group matches versus Argentina, Japan, Chile and Samoa.

ADVERTISEMENT

Defending champions South Africa have also taken up accommodation on the coast, with Toulon named as their base camp. However, the scenery will be very different for the Lyon-based All Blacks and host nation France, who will be based at Rueil-Malmaison on the outskirts of Paris.

A World Rugby statement read: “Team preparations for Rugby World Cup 2023 in France have marked a major milestone with each qualified team selecting their team base camp, their home away from home during the pool phase.

Video Spacer
Video Spacer

“Central to performance and the nationwide rugby festival, team base camps will provide communities throughout France the opportunity to share in the excitement of Rugby World Cup, and teams with access to the very best of facilities.

“Nine French regions have been designated to welcome and host the participating teams and they will be at the heart of a Rugby World Cup that will mean that more people across the nation can engage with rugby’s pinnacle event.

Related

“The team base camp choices are the result of a detailed process started in 2019 by the France 2023 organising committee and have performance at their core. The process started with a ‘call for expression of interest’ which led to an incredible 89 applicants across the country. Following the initial application phase, a pre-selection was undertaken based on two major objectives:

“To offer high-level facilities for qualified teams to prepare and train during Rugby World Cup 2023 in the optimum performance environment; and to optimise teams travel based on their pool phase matches, with an emphasis on train travel to minimise carbon emissions in line with the tournament’s ambition

ADVERTISEMENT

“Following an extensive technical evaluation and visits from November 2021 to January 2022 by team representatives, each qualified team was presented with three base camp options, with a final decision made by the team itself.

“The last team base camp will be announced later this year once the final qualified team has a chance to visit the facilities. The 20th and final qualifier in Pool C will be known after the conclusion of the final qualification tournament in Dubai this weekend.”

Rugby World Cup 2023 – Base camps
POOL A

New Zealand: Lyon (Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes)
France: Rueil-Malmaison (Ile-de-France)
Italy: Bourgoin-Jallieu (Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes)
Uruguay: Avignon (Provence)
Namibia: Aix les Bains (Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes)

POOL B
South Africa: Toulon (Région Sud)
Ireland: Tours (Centre-Val de Loire)
Scotland: Nice (Région Sud)
Tonga: Croissy sur Seine (Ile-de-France)
Romania: Libourne (Nouvelle-Aquitaine)

ADVERTISEMENT

POOL C
Wales: Versailles (Ile-de-France)
Australia: Saint-Étienne (Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes)
Fiji: Bordeaux (Nouvelle-Aquitaine)
Georgia: La Rochelle – Ile de Ré (Nouvelle-Aquitaine)
Final Qualifier: TBC

POOL D
England: Le Touquet-Paris-Plage (Hauts-de-France)
Japan: Toulouse (Occitanie)
Argentina: La Baule-Escoublac (Pays de la Loire)
Samoa: Montpellier (Occitanie)
Chile: Perros-Guirec (Bretagne)

ADVERTISEMENT

Wolfhounds vs Gwalia | Celtic Challenge 2024/25 | Match Highlights

Watch now: Lomu - The Lost Tapes

O2 Inside Line: This Rose | Episode 2 | Ireland Week

New Zealand vs Australia: Behind the Scenes with the Black Ferns Sevens Team | HSBC SVNS Embedded | E06

O2 Inside Line: This Rose | Episode 1

Argentina v Australia | HSBC SVNS Perth 2025 | Men's Final Match Highlights

The Dupont Ploy: How France went from underdogs to Olympic gods | The Report

Former rugby player is truly an NFL superstar | Walk the Talk | Jordan Mailata

Boks Office | Episode 33 | Dupont's Toulouse Too Good

Trending on RugbyPass

Comments

0 Comments
Be the first to comment...

Join free and tell us what you really think!

Sign up for free
ADVERTISEMENT

Latest Features

Comments on RugbyPass

J
JW 6 hours ago
Western Force and ACT Brumbies looking for signs of progress in Super Rugby Pacific

Yeah, that’s what I was referring to too. You know in that situation the kind of things that form your picture of NRL or A league etc disappear in the case of kiwi rugby supporters, where they believe they have that advantage over aus rugby.


I have to put my hand up here. While I can see the reasoning behind a much better Reds, and even though they were good enough to win against the top 3 last year, I still don’t see them climbing (places) like you’d expect (all fair and reasonable points aside I mean).


But yes, I asked that because I do find aussie rugby supporters unique in this example of pragmatism. Look, I still think the circumstances dictate that it is why there isn’t more support for rugby in aus (they would need to win more like anything), but it is a) the kind of outlook that made my try to think of the SR standings in a way unassociated to nationality, and b) something that should be captured somehow and adopted by everyone.


Because I have no doubt SR died because of nationalism. Here, like with your above example, all there were for years were complaints of how better kiwi teams weren’t getting a deserved finals ranking. Now while the whole topic is complicated to get right, to have it get to the point where one side almost wants to kill it off and drive the otherside away is just not healthy.


I honestly think there are really easy things to do that could resolve the problem (if aus rugby culture couldn’t be copied/spread lol) like having even just a few players in each others teams. SR’s getting by right now because aussies population is so big there are still enough core fans that can have your outlook (though that survey said nearly a third also support another country?), but everything changes, and if the shoe is on the other foot at some time in the future I’d imagine that problem would “remain“ just long enough that NZ wouldn’t be able to “get by”.


There are just so many sports like SR that don’t have a parity system and end up with this sort of predictability that must be hard to ignore and get excited about. That its not down to something simple like being the richest is irrelevant. Visiting Japan it was really interesting to see how they had become supporters of these particular top sides. What do Canadians think about the Stanley Cup going to teams out of Law Vegas and Florida?

9 Go to comments
TRENDING
TRENDING Waratahs vs Highlanders takes: Suaalii lived up to hype, ex-7s star shines Waratahs vs Highlanders: Suaalii lived up to hype, ex-7s star shines
Search