Olympics causing financial headache

THE new cycle of T French senior men's rugby starts here - a month-and-a-half after the 2023 Rugby World Cup ended, and a month-and-ahalf before the 2024 Six Nations kicks off.

- JAMES HARRINGTON

The end goal: a serious challenge for the Webb Ellis Cup in Australia in 2027. And, on the face of it, everything seems good for rugby in France as the latest phase gets underway.

The quarter-final defeat in October does not seem to have dampened French appetite for rugby. Tickets for the three Championship home matches in February and March for Fabien Galthie's squad are over-subscribed. A record 400,000 requests have been recorded since the FFR opened its ticket office for the matches in Marseille, Lille and Lyon - where only 175,000 seats are available.

All three matches are guaranteed sell-outs: Rugbyrama reported that requests for tickets for the France-Ireland game could have filled two Stade Velodromes; France-England applications would sell out Lyon's 60,000-capacity OL Stadium nearly four times; while Lille's 50,000-seat Stade Pierre-Mauroy was more than 9,000 oversubscribed for France versus Italy.

"In a way, we're victims of our own success," the Federation said. this week. "We're delighted with the enthusiasm generated by the XV de France, but on the other hand, we're bound to disappoint a lot of people..."

Meanwhile, "Antoine Dupont" was the second-most searched name online in France in 2023, behind only footballer Kylian Mbappé, according to Google's annual tally of searches.

The Rugby World Cup and his broken cheekbone undoubtedly boosted those numbers. He was the only rugby player and they were the only sports personalities in the French top 10, and his Olympic bid is likely to keep his search hits high in 2024.