He’s found new heroes, none more brilliant than captain Antoine Dupont whose face appears to adorn every billboard in Paris, every poster on the Metro and who is now considered the second most influential man in France behind President Emmanuel Macron. The Olympics are coming in 2024 and this is all part of a plan for France to prove to the world it can indeed run a hybrid economy under capitalist principles but socialist values.Īnd just how much they want to win this tournament can’t be underestimated.Ĭoach Fabien Galthie took the job in 2020 knowing his mission was to rebuild a new, young, vibrant French team to win the 2023 World Cup. The French want to showcase their country – their ecologically friendly trains and their state-of-the-art stadia. In 2007 the French had bid for the World Cup more to stop England getting it rather than by a driving passion to be hosts and they even bought votes from Scotland and Wales by allowing them to both host a couple of games each.īut the 2023 tournament is in France because they went after it with big money – enough to persuade the council members to ignore World Rugby’s independent recommendation to vote for South Africa. The tournament 16 years ago didn’t have the support or energy of this one. Rugby World Cup 2023 will be nothing like the 2007 version when it was last held in France. They bombed out in the quarter-final that year and potentially, such a fate awaits them again if they don’t embrace the quirks of France, but also if they fail to understand the heightened state of emotion in the country right now and the intensity of pressure this tournament is going to produce. There is an unmistakable pride and passion at the core of France – maybe understandably given the people took control of their country with the sort of proactive verve and elan that has been lost in the United Kingdom and its former colonies.įrance is brilliantly different, hard-wired in a way that outsiders don’t always get and the All Blacks are going to feel like pilgrims in a strange land for however long they remain in this tournament. France runs on a happy chaos, a sort of anarchic energy where no one knows the rules – if there are any – and yet it functions more effectively than those nations which believe in militant bureaucracy and micro-management.Ī drive through Paris is in many ways the metaphor for French life: no one observes the speed limit, no one stays in their lane, motorbikes weave through the traffic at terrifying speeds, but it all flows effortlessly and without incident.Īnd most of the cars are French-made, because this is a nation that is loyal to its brands and its heritage.
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