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‘Great host’: World Rugby verdict with RWC in France 100 days away
By Liam Heagney
World Rugby boss Alan Gilpin has saluted the enthusiasm prevailing in France with just 100 days now left to go before the start of the 2023 Rugby World Cup. The tournament kicks off on September 8 when Fabien Galthie’s side welcome the All Blacks to Stade de France and the game’s global governing body has been impressed by the vibe surrounding a tournament that has 2.5million ticket sales with less than three months left before it begins.
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“Ticket sales have always been fantastic for this tournament,” enthused Gilpin. “Any time tickets have gone on sale, there has been huge demand and there is enormous overseas demand for the tournament. We have got incredibly engaged host cities. We know rugby has incredible strongholds, particularly in the south of France, but the excitement is certainly building all around the country.”
The form of the French under Galthie in recent years has been a blessing. “It’s hugely important to the build-up to any tournament that the national team is competitive and they certainly are that,” continued the World Rugby CEO.
“We have got a French public that are immensely proud of a really, really spectacular current French national team, and we know we are going to have an incredibly competitive tournament. We open the tournament with an absolute blockbuster in terms of France-New Zealand and there is huge excitement around that team in general and what it might achieve.
“It’s certainly timely for the sport that we are going to have this incredible opportunity, to have all the best things around rugby. Look, we know it has been challenging times for a number of professional leagues and for a number of clubs as it has for a huge number of sports coming through covid and what it has meant in terms of the underlying businesses.
“Yeah, the Rugby World Cup comes as a great time. We have been incredibly fortunate to have had a spectacular World Cup in France and we have always had this great opportunity to look forward to a great World Cup in France. In that respect, it is really timely just to remind everybody what a great sport we are in.
“From a rugby perspective, France is a great host. They were genuinely a fantastic host in 2007 of this tournament, so a great rugby nation that is passionate about rugby with some fantastic facilities and a very competitive and watchable national team.
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“It is such a great host destination, one of the most popular tourist destinations and we saw in 2007 and we are definitely seeing now more so than before as the visitor numbers will be records for Rugby World Cups.
“People want to go to France and enjoy the lifestyle aspects of a Rugby World Cup, the culture, the food, the fantastic host cities and countryside. There is so much to do in France outside of what will be a great Rugby World Cup. It provides that perfect hosting landscape.”
And a safe one promised the World Rugby chief. “Like every event, we are planning all the time for such a wide range of different scenarios and protests of any nature. On the one hand, of course it is a challenge and a concern, but it is something we are planning for and like all the scenarios working incredibly closely with particularly the French authorities and the various host cities.
“We have got the benefit in this tournament of having an incredibly experienced set of world-class venues who are used to hosting major event content, that are all used to hosting great content on a very regular basis so while I am sure as there is in every major event and in every World Cup incidents we need to deal with, I think we will be well prepared for that.”
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