2023 World Cup: The All Blacks and Japan will set foot on the Toulouse Stadium (Archives) -

Mark Kolbe / AP / SIPA

  • The 2023 Rugby World Cup schedule was unveiled on Friday.

  • The Toulouse Stadium will host five matches, including one from the All Blacks, two from Japan and one from Fiji.

  • The Occitania region expects 63 million economic benefits, in particular thanks to the presence of the Japanese public and its impact on tourism.

On September 29, 2007, Luke McAlister and Dan Carter's All Blacks beat Romania at the Toulouse Stadium.

A few days before losing to the XV of France at the Millennium Stadium in Cardiff.

Sixteen years later, the New Zealand rugby team will once again set foot on “little Wembley” in a group match at the 2023 Rugby World Cup.

This Friday, the event organizers unveiled the schedule for this edition which will take place from September 8 to October 28, 2023, including five matches played in the Pink City.

Claude Atcher, the director of France 2023, explained that he was “more than delighted” that the Blacks went through “Toulouse, the real region of rugby”. 

Capital of rugby culture in France, @TlseMetropole will welcome the best players on the planet ❗ @fijirugby @JRFURugby @AllBlacks # RWC2023 pic.twitter.com/583h6LkpuC

- Rugby World Cup France 2023 (@ France2023) February 26, 2021

But the crampons of players from the land of the kiwis will not be the only ones to pass through Toulouse.

Fiji will also discover the banks of the Garonne, just like the Japanese during two meetings.

The Japanese rugby players could even settle throughout the World Cup a stone's throw from the Capitol.

"It could be that their base camp is not too far away from the city where they will have their two games," said Claude Atcher.

63 million euros in expected benefits

A desire to develop relations with Japan that the regional council developed very early on by signing a memorandum of understanding in Tokyo with the organizing bodies in 2019 to convince the Japanese authorities to choose Occitanie as a base camp.

Because the elected representatives of the region know what the return can be in terms of tourism.

"This major sports festival will irrigate the entire territory, this represents 63 million economic benefits, whether in terms of tourism but also for cultural places or even restaurants", pleads its president, Carole Delga.

In 2007, during the previous World Cup in France, more than 130 million euros in direct spinoffs were recorded in each host region.

But beyond the hard cash, the world of Ovalie had also benefited from this momentum for rugby.

Over the period 2007-2011, the fields saw the amateur numbers increase by 10%.

To transform the test, and to attract more and more enthusiasts, an emblematic museum around rugby should see the light of day near the Ernest-Wallon stadium by 2023, a city of rugby which should continue to make the Pink City a land of 'Ovalie.

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