PARIS — Although Ireland lost its top ranking at the Rugby World Cup in France, its fans remained undefeated at No. 1.
Legions of green-clad Ireland supporters belting out “Zombie” by the Cranberries after each game at Stade de France, or bellowing “ The Fields of Athenry” during them, will linger long in the memory of the 10th Rugby World Cup.
At times, it seemed as if the whole of Dublin moved to Paris.
“I felt it was a real privilege to be there,” World Rugby CEO Alan Gilpin said after witnessing Ireland’s titanic 13-8 win against South Africa in the pool stage. “I don’t think in many, many years of Rugby World Cups I’ve seen an atmosphere like it given that the host nation weren’t playing.”
At least 40,000 Irish fans - half of Stade de France’s capacity - came with joyous passion to the massively anticipated quarterfinal against New Zealand and left the arena in despair but with huge dignity despite a heart-breaking 28-24 defeat in a match worthy of any final.
Host France lost the chance to finally win the World Cup, despite starting in style with a 27-13 win against New Zealand that raised hopes sky-high.
PHOTOS: Ireland fans star at successful Rugby World Cup in France but cards for fouls frustrate
BLAME GAME
When Les Tricolores were eliminated in the quarterfinals along with Ireland, the bitterness of the home fans carried over into the remaining matches at Stade de France.
New Zealand referee Ben O’Keeffe was roundly booed after being held responsible unfairly by France captain Antoine Dupont, French fans and local media for a 29-28 defeat to South Africa.
English players were whistled constantly in the third-place match against Argentina, despite not even having played France at the tournament.
There was also a hint of desperation at the way fans at Stade de France continued to aggressively sing the French national anthem “La Marseillaise” during knockout matches, even doing so just before the anthems were played of the other teams still in the competition.
FRESH AIR
Chile made its World Cup debut and the amazing traveling support for Los Cóndores (The Condors) reached 15,000 at some pool games. Portugal returned after 16 years away and produced one of the performances of the tournament to beat quarterfinal-bound Fiji and leave the competition in style. Chile and Portugal won over the neutrals with their passion and panache, and both were a welcome breath of fresh air in a tournament which sweltered in a heatwave for the first few weeks.
RECORD BREAKERS
South Africa beat New Zealand 12-11 in a tension-packed final to win a record fourth title as one-point wonders.
France 2023 became the best-attended tournament ever with a combined audience of 3.7 million in stadiums and in Rugby Villages, organizers said, and that was with the third-place match and the final still to be played.
Television viewing figures were also consistently high, with British broadcaster ITV getting a year-leading audience of 8.7 million for the nail-biting semifinal between England and South Africa.
Despite France going out, a combined 13.6 million viewers tuned in to watch the semifinals.
FULL STADIUMS, LONG QUEUES
While stadiums were full and fans generally had a good time inside them, there were problems with long queues and transportation at early games.
Organizers apologized after numerous fans missed the start of the England-Argentina match on Sept. 9. in Marseille. Likewise, Irish fans were frustrated against Romania earlier the same day in Bordeaux.
Wales and Australia supporters were reportedly stranded after their match in Lyon, with the stadium about 11 kilometers (seven miles) from Lyon’s center and served by only one tram line. There were also reports of beer and water running out at stadiums and difficult access to venues.
While there were no strikes on the RER train line taking fans to Stade de France for the 10 matches held there, there was congestion at times and a lack of clear sign-posting caused confusion for fans inside busy stations.
SEEING RED
Concerns about a crackdown on any contact to the head were borne out early with seven red cards, one shy of the tournament record, inside the first three weeks. But officials took even longer to react to the frustration of spectators and TV viewers by finally making referees say on field the reasons why cards were or were not given.
The record-tying eighth red card came, untimely for New Zealand, in the final, where the inconsistency between which foul was yellow and red became another distracting talking point.
All eight red cards were upgraded from yellow by the new TMO bunker.
BETTER THAN BEFORE?
Overall, the tournament was far more successful and locally engaged than when France hosted it in 2007 and conceded six matches to Wales and Scotland - where Murrayfield couldn’t sell out a Scotland-New Zealand game and was less than half full for a game against Romania. Fast forward to now, and 10,000 turned up in Bordeaux just to see the All Blacks training.
The fans at France 2023 went everywhere in large numbers to the nine venues in good spirits, while French fans were closer to Fabien Galthié’s flamboyant team and far more neutral fans followed Les Tricolores.
SAFETY FIRST
Security was high with lines of armed police outside venues creating somewhat of an anxiety-inducing atmosphere but there were no dangerous incidents.
Remarkably, the French riot police - known as CRS and long used to dealing with social tensions and violent protests in Paris - even let their guard down, albeit briefly, when they allowed a few Irish to pose for photos in a police van with them after one match.
With a view to next year’s Paris Olympics, organizers will share information to help the Games go as smoothly as possible.
“France has the privilege of hosting both events in less than a year,” Jacques Rivoal, France 2023 chairman, said. “Several people working for the Olympic Games were embedded in our teams, in particular in the stadia that will host the football competitions. We had observation missions where Olympic employees came to benchmark what was working well in this World Cup, especially the fan zones.”
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