The 2023 Rugby World Cup is being hosted by France, the first time that the country has hosted the tournament in 16 years. But where within France are each of the Rugby World Cup venues?
Where are the Rugby World Cup venues? The Rugby World Cup venues are split across the French cities of Paris, Lille, Nantes, Bordeaux, Toulouse, Lyon, Saint Etienne, Nice and Marseille.
In total there are nine different French cities which hold Rugby World Cup venues. There are nine venues for the Rugby World Cup, with no city having more than one venue in it. The biggest venue in the Rugby World Cup is unsurprisingly located in France’s capital Paris with the Stade de France.
Seeing as this is by far the biggest stadium in the country, it is hardly surprising that the Stade de France will host not only the 2023 Rugby World Cup final, but both of the semi-final games as well.
The Stade Velodrome is the second biggest venue in the 2023 Rugby World Cup. Located in Marseille, the Stade Velodrome will also host two of the quarter-finals alongside the Stade de France. Marseille being on the very southern side of the country is likely one of the reasons why it is hosting knockout games as well as the Stade de France in Paris.
The seven other venues at this tournament will only host Rugby World Cup pool stage games. The organisers want to get as many people into the stadiums for the knockout games, which is why they are only using the two biggest stadiums at the tournament for the knockout games.
Interestingly, the Stade de France and the Stade Velodrome have hosted Rugby World Cup games before. Both hosted games at the 2007 Rugby World Cup, while the Stade de France also hosted games during the 1999 Rugby World Cup.
The other Rugby World Cup stadiums are the OL Stadium, Stade Pierre-Mauroy, Stade de Bordeaux, Stade Geoffroy-Guichard, Stade de Nice, Stade de la Beaujoire and the Stadium de Toulouse. All of these venues will only host pool stage games at this tournament.
Unsurprisingly, none of these venues will host more than one France pool stage game. OL Stadium will be the host to two of New Zealand’s group stage games, as well as France’s final pool stage game in the tournament against Italy.
Where are England playing at the 2023 Rugby World Cup?
England are not one of the favourites to win the 2023 Rugby World Cup, but there will still be a lot of English fans travelling over to France to support their team at the tournament. So where will these English fans be travelling to?
England will be playing in Marseille, Nice and Lille in the Rugby World Cup pool stage. If they make it through to the knockout stages then England will have the chance to also play in Marseille and Paris. It depends on how far England get in the tournament as to whether they play in Marseille and Paris.
England begin their tournament in Marseille, playing against Argentina at the Stade Velodrome. The team will then travel across to Nice, where they play Japan at the Allianz Riviera. The following week, England travel to Lille where they will play at the Stade Pierre-Mauroy against Chile.
England have a week off and then they are staying in Lille for their final group stage game of Pool D. No matter if England finish top or second in their group, the place where the team could be playing in the quarter-finals does not change. The Stade Velodrome in Marseille is the venue that England will play in if they make it through the pool stage.
That is because both quarter-final 1 and quarter-final 3 are going to take place in Marseille. If England advance any further in the tournament, then they will be playing at the Stade de France in Paris. Even if England lose in the semi-finals, they will still play two games in Paris because the Bronze Final also takes place in Paris.
Where are France playing at the Rugby World Cup?
As hosts of the tournament, France will have a big advantage over the rest of the teams. French fans will be desperate for the team to be playing in their city, so let’s have a look at where France will be playing in the Rugby World Cup.
France will be playing in Paris, Lille, Marseille and Lyon during this tournament. The hosts begin their tournament with a huge game, hosting former three time Rugby World Cup champions New Zealand at the Stade de France in Paris. The team will then head down to Lille to play at the Stade Pierre-Mauroy against Uruguay.
The following week, France will play at the Stade Velodrome in Marseille against Namibia. After a week’s break, the team’s final game is against Italy at the Parc Olympique Lyonnais in Lyon. As long as France advance through to the Rugby World Cup quarter-finals, they will play in Paris.
That is because quarter-finals 2 and 4 are both taking place in Paris. So it doesn’t matter if France finishes first or second in their Pool, they will play their remaining games in Paris because that is where the rest of the knockout games take place.
Are there Autumn Internationals in 2023?
The Autumn internationals are fixtures played between international teams in the autumn of most years. There has been some question over whether those fixtures will take place in 2023.
The Autumn Internationals will not take place in 2023. That is because the Rugby World Cup is taking place in the Autumn of 2023. The tournament starts on the 8th of September and is set to finish on the 28th of October. Therefore there is not enough time for Autumn internationals to take place.
There are some internationals taking place in the summer of 2023 instead. These internationals act as warm up games for the 2023 tournament. But there will be no autumn internationals in 2023 due to the Rugby World Cup.