Rugby World Cup kicks off as France faces key organisational test

Hosts France kick-off the Rugby World Cup against three-time champions New Zealand on Friday in a mouth-watering appetiser to a seven-week tournament that will also provide a key test of the country's organisational skills ahead of the 2024 Olympics.

As well as anticipation, there is plenty of apprehension following the chaos that blighted last year's football Champions League final at the same Stade de France stadium on the outskirts of Paris that will host both the first and last matches of this World Cup.

With the Paris Olympics less than a year away, the Rugby World Cup will be seen as a litmus test for French authorities to prove they have learnt lessons from the mistakes of May last year during the football showpiece between Liverpool and Real Madrid.

But it is also expected to provide a spectacle perhaps unmatched in previous tournaments, with New Zealand great Dan Carter telling AFP he is looking forward to the "closest Rugby World Cup of all time."

Even the bookmakers can barely separate champions South Africa, world number one side Ireland, the effervescent hosts and the enigmatic All Blacks.

By a quirk of the draw, all four have been loaded into the same half, meaning at least two will be eliminated before the semi-final stage.

That gives misfiring England, Wales and Australia hope they could play themselves into form, and contention, before the business end of the competition in late October.

And Argentina will be confident they can add rugby's highest accolade to the football trophy claimed by Lionel Messi and his Albiceleste team-mates less than a year ago in Qatar -- when they beat France in the final.

It kicks off a remarkable year of sporting excitement in France with a particularly acute political gaze cast over the rugby showpiece.

French Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin, who came under heavy fire over the official response to last year's football mayhem, says major police reinforcements have been introduced to fight "delinquency."

He also insisted that officers would be focused on looking after visiting fans, rather than treating them as hooligans -- many Liverpool supporters complained of being teargassed at last year's Champions League final.

Around 2.5 million rugby fans are expected to attend World Cup fixtures across nine venues in France, including 600,000 from abroad.

Asked about the danger of terrorism, Darmanin said there was "no particular threat for the Rugby World Cup, and even less for the opening match".

- French expectation -
The hosts - three time runners up - come into this tournament with more expectation than perhaps ever before.

They went through 2022 unbeaten, claiming a Six Nations Grand Slam, and beating all three of their major tournament rivals, Ireland, New Zealand and South Africa in the same calendar year.

While they have not hit the same heights in 2023, they did muster a record 53-10 victory over England at Twickenham in March, and just thumped twice champions Australia 41-17 in their final warm-up.

In captain and scrum-half Antoine Dupont, they have one of the game's outstanding talents.

"We've never been so well prepared," Dupont told AFP this week.

"We have a promising generation of talented players who have gained experience and continuity in the backbone of the team."

The loss of fly-half Romain Ntamack to injury is a blow, though.

The opening match ensures the tournament will get off to a bang.

It is one of the most epic fixtures in World Cup history, producing countless moments of drama, such as the 1999 semi-final when France roared back from a 24-10 deficit early in the second half to memorably win 43-31 against the Jonah Lomu-inspired All Blacks.

And then there was France's thrilling 20-18 quarter-final victory in 2007, and New Zealand's nervy 8-7 triumph in the final on home soil four years later.

"That's what adds to the excitement of this World Cup," said Carter. (AFP)