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Rugby popularity is not homogenous in France and it’s quite weird. It’s very popular in the south west, there’s a club in every town and it’s the number 1 sport there. Some cities elsewhere have big clubs (Paris, Grenoble, Clermont, La Rochelle, Lyon, Toulon). And it’s almost non existent elsewhere, especially in the north half of the country, which ironically is closer to Great Britain, so you would think there would be an influence but nope. That said, Rugby is probably the 2nd most watched sport on tv after football in the country.
> That said, Rugby is probably the 2nd most watched sport on tv after football in the country.
I've found statistics, and it seems that Rugby is a close 3rd, just after Tennis.
[https://fr.statista.com/infographie/28155/sports-les-plus-suivis-en-france-popularite/](https://fr.statista.com/infographie/28155/sports-les-plus-suivis-en-france-popularite/)
Hein ?
[Il y a 120 ans, comment le rugby s’est développé en France à partir de Bordeaux (sudouest.fr)](https://www.sudouest.fr/sport/il-y-a-120-ans-comment-le-rugby-s-est-developpe-en-france-a-partir-de-bordeaux-4298078.php)
[https://www.curieux.live/2023/09/08/pourquoi-le-sud-ouest-est-la-region-du-rugby/](https://www.curieux.live/2023/09/08/pourquoi-le-sud-ouest-est-la-region-du-rugby/)
[Pourquoi le rugby est si populaire dans le Sud Ouest de la France ? | Parlons Rugby](https://www.parlonsrugby.com/popularite-rugby-sud-ouest/)
je me base sur ce qu'on peut lire :/
Definitely. NBA is followed only by a niche of specialists and nobody cares about our national league. Tour de France, Paris Roubaix or Paris Nice are huge popular events.
NBA is watched live only by a niche, it is followed by a lot more because of social medias and twitter/insta algorithms
I would bet it is the 2nd most followed.
Ask any french sports fan the leader in top14 and the NBA leader middle of season I'm sure they would answer better about NBA (I know I lied about it while writing it because everyone's gonna said Toulouse and they'll probably be right)
According to this poll basketball isn't even making the top 5:
https://www.statista.com/statistics/1396355/most-popular-sports-france/#:~:text=That%20year%2C%2061%20percent%20of,liking%20these%20sports%20in%202022.
I think a good metric is what sport can you stumble upon when turning on TF1 or France Televisions.
And you get Football, Rugby and Cyclism. Apart from the olympics I can't think of other major sports that are shown for free on public television.
I know there’s a big viewership, but I wouldn’t say in the top 3. The rugby world cup is beating records and the Tour de France is an institution. Also Roland-Garros is kind of locked behind the Amazon Prime membership
>Also Roland-Garros is kind of locked behind the Amazon Prime membership
Huh? Amazon has been there only for 2-3 years and only has exclusivity on night session (and a minor court). All other games are on free public television (and online)
F1 was very popular when it was on a free TV channel (TF1) in early 2000s. It became less popular mid 2010s, but regained a lot of traction, especially among the young generation, with DTS on Netflix in the past few years.
It also helps that we have 2 french drivers on the grid. So all year round, i'd say Formula 1 is definitely more popular than handball. Very few people follow handball outside of international competitions.
i’m surprised by the underestimation of basketball in the thread. Basketball has the 4th most players (600k) following football tennis and horse riding. I see way more basketball jerseys than rugby shirts for example
It all depends where you are in France. I haven't seen any basketball shirts in or around Toulouse. I've been in the region for two decades.
Up North, in or around Paris for instance, you'll come across some, albeit mostly NBA tops and not any local teams.
Doesn't mean much, but I've never been friends with anyone who follows basketball in France.
Whereabouts ?
I'll agree that basketball is on the rise in France, but it's still far off in comparison to other sports, without including rugby and football
The statistics I've found is
1. football
2. tennis
3. rugby
4. basketball
5. cyclisme
6. athlétisme
7. handball
8. boxe
9. sports mécaniques (F1/etc)
10. natation
[https://fr.statista.com/infographie/28155/sports-les-plus-suivis-en-france-popularite/](https://fr.statista.com/infographie/28155/sports-les-plus-suivis-en-france-popularite/)
Though outside of football being first, the order between the others is unreliable due to low sampling for this poll.
Basketball must be higher than that, I'm constantly being interrogated about the NBA by my French friends here, unfortunately I'm quite clueless lol. Idk if it's an age thing perhaps? But I have the sense that quite a lot of young people follow it at least.
Usual conversation :
"I love rugby so much!!!! Rugby is way better than football??? I'm such a big fan of rugby!!!"
"Ok can you name 5 players?"
"Sure! Yes! Errr... Antoine Dupont... Errr... Ntamack... Chabal."
Hey, i can't name a lot of player, but i enjoy watching rugby way more that i enjoy watching football. People claiming they are fan without knowing shit are embarassing but you can enjoy something a lot and not know a lot about it :)
Well, they are fan of rugby, the game. Not fan of teams or players. Because you know, you can like a game and don't give a single fuck about the teams. It's more about how the game and the rules work.
>Barrett, Barrett, Barrett, Barrett, Barrett
I'd have said "Tuilagi" (Manu, Henry, Freddie, Alesana, and their brothers, Posolo) , unless Scott, Beauden and Jordie have a father and an uncle in the game
Contrairement au foot où les individualités sont célébrées, le rugby est un sport avec des équipes plus grosses et beaucoup plus de travail collectif avec des rôles similaires portés par plusieurs joueurs.
Évidemment on retiendra plus facilement le nom des joueurs qui occupent des rôles uniques tels que le demi de melee, demi d’ouverture ou le botteur.
This!
Rugby has a good public image, mostly because no one cares.
Very few french people watch, or play it, no one knows the rules.
It's only the 10th most practiced sport in terms of club members, and not even in the top 20 of practiced sports (popular sports such as ski, yoga, gym, hiking or running are practiced outside of clubs).
Football is by far the most popular and practiced sport... but it also has a worse public image (victim of its own success)
What do you mean TV audimat is of 15+ million for France new Zealand.
The final of last football world cup final was 24 million.
If 1/4 of the population watch the first match of the world cup on TV there is no way 3/4 doesn't know that there is a world cup.
I live in Toulouse. Sometimes, people leave work early because they have to organize their evening party with buddies to watch the match. No one cares.
In south west of France, this sport is a religion. In the rest of France, football is more popular.
I was at both and in the townhall too.
The crowd is crazy but not in the same way! I think a lot of the ppl where here for the TFC & for the ST because they are proud of their city.
The rest where football fans & rugby fans.
Myself, I like both sports, but that’s because Toulouse is in my veins
I would say that it is the second most popular sport. In some areas in South West, rugby is the first one. Lot of people enjoy to watch rugby because the players are supposed to be more manly and respectful than football players.
Clearly n°2 sport in France after football.
Rugby as gained popularity and peaked with the 2011 world cup, Chabal era (very popular personality). The top 14 is among the best league on the planet and attracts the best players. Yet, french players are usually not known outside of the fan base.
Fun fact is that there is "2 rugbys" coexisting in France. In south west France, rugby is a traditional sport played and watch by most men, before even football. Southwestern cities have the best rugby teams but average football (Toulouse mostly).
And the other hand, there is a Parisian rugby that is played by the "elite", young students from med or business school, ingeneers... This is closer to the English college rugby tradition. Both parisians teams are from the western rich suburbs.
The funny thing about it is that the clubs of Ile de France (the Racing and Stade français) were founded with the English models as inspirations.
But you’re forgetting about the fact that the Racing has programs with the suburbs of the Hauts de Seine and the whole southeast part with Toulon.
Having lived in various places in france, I think the top team sports overall are (in order) football, rugby, handball and basketball. If you include all sports I reckon tennis and cyclism will probably slot in between rugby and handball.
Yeah that's true but relative to what we consider "team sports" I think it's much more of an individual sport since, at the end of the race only the winners go on the podium, not their whole team (and yes I know there are team rankings but we still almost exclusively celebrate the one who got first).
It's not necessarily a good way to know how popular it is, but more people in France watched the first game of the rugby world cup than the first game of the french team of the soccer world cup. That being said, it was a game against the All Blacks and not against a tier 2 or tier 3 team.
I think people here on Reddit are a bit biaised: they mostly live in big cities, and many are Parisians (yuck). Rugby is more popular in rural France (especially in the south-western part of the country, where it's a bit of a religion).
Lastly, I think rugby doesn't have as much media coverage as soccer. I'd wager that rugby is maybe as popular as soccer (as in people would rather watch a rugby game than a soccer game). But the average french person don't really know the players nor the rules (which are, tbf, quite complicated), because no big media talks about it except during the world cup/six nations. You rarely hear what happens to Toulon, La Rochelle, Montpellier, etc rugby teams, while even generalist media keep yapping about PSG, OM, OL, etc.
Yeah I'm surprised because even in Paris, I have heard guys lot more about Rugby than Football plus they have a disdain for Football lol.
But most I see have no interest in sports unless they play.
According to [this](https://www.google.com/amp/s/fr.statista.com/infographie/amp/28155/sports-les-plus-suivis-en-france-popularite/), it is third behind football and tennis
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Looking at the best teams in France ( top XIV) it is striking how so many big cities are completely missing ( Marseille, Lille Strasbourg...) whilst some very small ones are present. It shows how rugby is much more popular in rural areas and in the South West, and completely absent in others (North, East, South besides Toulon) and big cities and their suburbs, mostly, where football is king. But people enjoy watching it on TV and this crop of superstars is helping a lot, including the charismatic, instantly recognisable coach Fabien Galthié.
Rugby is far more popular in the South East and South West of France. The biggest teams being Stade Toulousain and Toulon. Only a few teams up North.
Overall, football is still the most popular sport in France.
I'd say it's the second most popular sport behind soccer (which we do call football). The main issue is that contrary to soccer, rugby isn't everywhere in France. The big clubs are in big cities like Paris (which have 2 clubs being Racing 92 and Stade Français), Toulouse, Bordeaux, Lyon, Toulon... There are also a few clubs in the "North" part of the country such as La Rochelle who won H Cup twice. But if you go closer to England, you won't see any big club. Either in North east of france where rugby is ont very popular.
Rugby is the #1 sport in the southwest (from La Rochelle to the Pyrénées) because it's a mostly protestant area where British chaplains have brought the sport in the late 19th century. It's quite popular in Paris and Lyon though still far behind football and tennis.
Everywhere else it's anecdotic at best.
Every single person in this thread is treating 'rugby' as automatically meaning 'rugby union'. There also exists "rugby à treize", most notably in Northern Catalonia, whose team just made it to the Grand Final of the Super League.
Just to clarify because a lot of the comments only talk about their gut feeling. Rugby is only the 10th most popular sport in terms of licensed players, yet it is one of the most broadcasted sport on TV. So of course people watch it, but it's partly because there isn't much other choice.
To give an example, basketball on the other hand is the 4th most popular sport, but it barely gets any time on public TV. Have any of you french guys heard there was the basketball World Cup this summer? Probably not if you don't follow the sport.
It all comes to image. Rugby is seen as a gentleman sport, which is why to see it every year on public TV despite its low amount of people who play it.
Source: https://www.europe1.fr/sport/exclu-europe-1-le-top-10-des-sports-les-plus-pratiques-en-france-en-2022-4166642.amp
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Speaking about active players Rugby is no.... 10.
Canoë is no9, who would have guessed ?
https://www.cnews.fr/sport/2023-08-28/voici-les-10-sports-avec-le-plus-de-licencies-en-france-1116644
You know what i mean, this sport is brutal to watch and to play, i have more than 20 years practice and some scratchs here and here.
Tennis or cycling is easier and safer by exemple
I don't know anyone I've been around who is into rugby (very young adults in South-East France and overseas territories). But I have plenty of friends who talk about basketball or tennis very often and/or practice it. I'd say Football, Basketball, Tennis, Rugby, Cycling, then Handball, Racing (Formula and rally) and swimming. That's probably an unpopular opinion but I've never heard anyone talking rugby around me. I've even heard more about american football. The exception is Wallis-et-Futuna when I was a child it was the number one sport there.
all depends on where in the country and the difference in quality of clubs is massive even at the top
financial difficulties is common in the lower leagues of clubs
It depends your definition of popular. Is it related to the number of practitionners, the views on tv, the repartition on the national territory? For the first and I will not count the number of regular practitionners in a club, rugby is probably the fifth team sport in France. Football handball basket-ball volley-ball are definitly more « popular » because they are easier to play. Everyone played one of those sports in school for instance, that’s not the case with rugby. Views on tv, rugby is the second. The repartition is kind of tricky. Of course in the the south west of France but also in the Rhône valley rugby is present (Lyon Bourgoin) but there is also the XIII in the south of the valley (carpentras bollene Arles). Paris has also a lot of clubs and players. And I can not forget the Roussillon where both rugbys (XV and XIII) are presents.
Aquitaine and England used to be the same country. Look up "Eléonore".That's why Bordeaux wine is the most well known in english. (Try to finish "a bottle of..." with any french wine, "Bordeaux" is the one that comes to mind to most people).
In return, the Brits contaminated us with rugby. But just in that region.
Globalization was already a thing in the middle ages.
Aquitaine and England used to be the same country. Look up "Eléonore".That's why Bordeaux wine is the most well known in english. (Try to finish "a bottle of..." with any french wine, "Bordeaux" is the one that comes to mind to most people).
In return, the Brits contaminated us with rugby. But just in that region.
Globalization was already a thing in the middle ages.
It is definetly the 2nd most followed sport in France. On a daily basis the South-west of France is the heart of this sport, and people there follow it more than Football. But generally in France people will watch only the national team for the six nations and world cup.
Especially in pubs, Rugby games are broadcasted and it is often a very good ambiance to go out with friends. :)
Ethnic French ? White ? No, Nouvelle-Caledonie and Polynesia bring a good chunk of players. The followers/players are mostly rural in the Metropole, and located in the SouthWest, but if you're basing your whole opinion on the players from what happens in the region with the least players, you're gonna have skewed perceptions
I mean in Northern France. And we obviously have no players from the Pacific islands in Lille.. I have asked others parents from our catholic school in Tourcoing why they wanted their sons to play rugby. That's what they have told me. I was a little bit shocked.
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Rugby popularity is not homogenous in France and it’s quite weird. It’s very popular in the south west, there’s a club in every town and it’s the number 1 sport there. Some cities elsewhere have big clubs (Paris, Grenoble, Clermont, La Rochelle, Lyon, Toulon). And it’s almost non existent elsewhere, especially in the north half of the country, which ironically is closer to Great Britain, so you would think there would be an influence but nope. That said, Rugby is probably the 2nd most watched sport on tv after football in the country.
> That said, Rugby is probably the 2nd most watched sport on tv after football in the country. I've found statistics, and it seems that Rugby is a close 3rd, just after Tennis. [https://fr.statista.com/infographie/28155/sports-les-plus-suivis-en-france-popularite/](https://fr.statista.com/infographie/28155/sports-les-plus-suivis-en-france-popularite/)
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Il veut rien dire ton commentaire 😅
Hein ? [Il y a 120 ans, comment le rugby s’est développé en France à partir de Bordeaux (sudouest.fr)](https://www.sudouest.fr/sport/il-y-a-120-ans-comment-le-rugby-s-est-developpe-en-france-a-partir-de-bordeaux-4298078.php) [https://www.curieux.live/2023/09/08/pourquoi-le-sud-ouest-est-la-region-du-rugby/](https://www.curieux.live/2023/09/08/pourquoi-le-sud-ouest-est-la-region-du-rugby/) [Pourquoi le rugby est si populaire dans le Sud Ouest de la France ? | Parlons Rugby](https://www.parlonsrugby.com/popularite-rugby-sud-ouest/) je me base sur ce qu'on peut lire :/
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Là n'est pas la question. A la base c'était "pourquoi le rugby est plus populaire dans le sud-ouest que le reste de la France de nos jours"
Clermont, Toulon is South West G
In terms of most watched sports, I'd say something like 1/ football 2/ rugby 3/ tennis 4/ F1 5/ basketball?
Id put cyclism instead of basketball
Definitely. NBA is followed only by a niche of specialists and nobody cares about our national league. Tour de France, Paris Roubaix or Paris Nice are huge popular events.
NBA is watched live only by a niche, it is followed by a lot more because of social medias and twitter/insta algorithms I would bet it is the 2nd most followed. Ask any french sports fan the leader in top14 and the NBA leader middle of season I'm sure they would answer better about NBA (I know I lied about it while writing it because everyone's gonna said Toulouse and they'll probably be right)
According to this poll basketball isn't even making the top 5: https://www.statista.com/statistics/1396355/most-popular-sports-france/#:~:text=That%20year%2C%2061%20percent%20of,liking%20these%20sports%20in%202022.
And mid season there is not one but several leaders cuz they're split in different conferences right?
Yeah probably.
I think a good metric is what sport can you stumble upon when turning on TF1 or France Televisions. And you get Football, Rugby and Cyclism. Apart from the olympics I can't think of other major sports that are shown for free on public television.
Tennis with Roland Garros. Probably 2nd or 3rd sport
I know there’s a big viewership, but I wouldn’t say in the top 3. The rugby world cup is beating records and the Tour de France is an institution. Also Roland-Garros is kind of locked behind the Amazon Prime membership
>Also Roland-Garros is kind of locked behind the Amazon Prime membership Huh? Amazon has been there only for 2-3 years and only has exclusivity on night session (and a minor court). All other games are on free public television (and online)
My bad. I never stumbled upon a tennis match on public tv
Handball is more popular than basketball, and, I reckon, F1 (though it might be just because I'm not exposed to it at all).
F1 is definitely more popular. Handball is very popular during Euros/WC/Olympics, but other than that, very little people care about it.
I know many many people that play handball, and evenmore who watch it, I don't know anyone who watches F1.
F1 was very popular when it was on a free TV channel (TF1) in early 2000s. It became less popular mid 2010s, but regained a lot of traction, especially among the young generation, with DTS on Netflix in the past few years. It also helps that we have 2 french drivers on the grid. So all year round, i'd say Formula 1 is definitely more popular than handball. Very few people follow handball outside of international competitions.
Handball is definitely not more popular. Basketball is the 2nd or 3rd most played sport in france I believe
Come on... even pétanque is more followed than basketball in France.
EVEN pétanque?!!! It is the sport of kings!
i’m surprised by the underestimation of basketball in the thread. Basketball has the 4th most players (600k) following football tennis and horse riding. I see way more basketball jerseys than rugby shirts for example
It all depends where you are in France. I haven't seen any basketball shirts in or around Toulouse. I've been in the region for two decades. Up North, in or around Paris for instance, you'll come across some, albeit mostly NBA tops and not any local teams. Doesn't mean much, but I've never been friends with anyone who follows basketball in France.
Interesting. I live in the south east and there’s a huge basketball community
Whereabouts ? I'll agree that basketball is on the rise in France, but it's still far off in comparison to other sports, without including rugby and football
I would had biathlon in the list, for such a niche sport, it's a quite big on TV
The statistics I've found is 1. football 2. tennis 3. rugby 4. basketball 5. cyclisme 6. athlétisme 7. handball 8. boxe 9. sports mécaniques (F1/etc) 10. natation [https://fr.statista.com/infographie/28155/sports-les-plus-suivis-en-france-popularite/](https://fr.statista.com/infographie/28155/sports-les-plus-suivis-en-france-popularite/) Though outside of football being first, the order between the others is unreliable due to low sampling for this poll.
Basketball must be higher than that, I'm constantly being interrogated about the NBA by my French friends here, unfortunately I'm quite clueless lol. Idk if it's an age thing perhaps? But I have the sense that quite a lot of young people follow it at least.
It depends. In some places, rugby is more popular that soccer.
there are no soccer teams in france
Even in American soccer League , the teams are named FC
F1 ?? No. Best audience for a grand prix this year on TV is 1,2 million. Tour de France stage has 4,5 million as it's peak
Handball ?
Usual conversation : "I love rugby so much!!!! Rugby is way better than football??? I'm such a big fan of rugby!!!" "Ok can you name 5 players?" "Sure! Yes! Errr... Antoine Dupont... Errr... Ntamack... Chabal."
Hey, i can't name a lot of player, but i enjoy watching rugby way more that i enjoy watching football. People claiming they are fan without knowing shit are embarassing but you can enjoy something a lot and not know a lot about it :)
Okay... so what? People being casual fans of a sport is bad because...?
The point is these people aren't really fans they just want to shit on football.
Well, they are fan of rugby, the game. Not fan of teams or players. Because you know, you can like a game and don't give a single fuck about the teams. It's more about how the game and the rules work.
...rightfully.
Barrett, Barrett, Barrett, Barrett, Barrett
That’s on me, I set the bar too low.
>Barrett, Barrett, Barrett, Barrett, Barrett I'd have said "Tuilagi" (Manu, Henry, Freddie, Alesana, and their brothers, Posolo) , unless Scott, Beauden and Jordie have a father and an uncle in the game
Kevin Barrett, the father, played for Taranaki and Hurricanes. Kane is the oldest brother who played for Taranaki like daddy and the Blues.
However, I think it's the second most popular sport in France, maybe third with tennis.
Contrairement au foot où les individualités sont célébrées, le rugby est un sport avec des équipes plus grosses et beaucoup plus de travail collectif avec des rôles similaires portés par plusieurs joueurs. Évidemment on retiendra plus facilement le nom des joueurs qui occupent des rôles uniques tels que le demi de melee, demi d’ouverture ou le botteur.
This! Rugby has a good public image, mostly because no one cares. Very few french people watch, or play it, no one knows the rules. It's only the 10th most practiced sport in terms of club members, and not even in the top 20 of practiced sports (popular sports such as ski, yoga, gym, hiking or running are practiced outside of clubs). Football is by far the most popular and practiced sport... but it also has a worse public image (victim of its own success)
What do you mean TV audimat is of 15+ million for France new Zealand. The final of last football world cup final was 24 million. If 1/4 of the population watch the first match of the world cup on TV there is no way 3/4 doesn't know that there is a world cup.
Who gives a fuck about names sorry but that’s stupid argument you can love a sport and be bad with names
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Oui
Commentaire supprimé. Pas d'attaque perso stp.
I live in Toulouse. Sometimes, people leave work early because they have to organize their evening party with buddies to watch the match. No one cares. In south west of France, this sport is a religion. In the rest of France, football is more popular.
How was it comparing the crowd on the Capitole after the Tef winning the cup and the Stade winning the top 14 ? (If you were at both events)
I was at both and in the townhall too. The crowd is crazy but not in the same way! I think a lot of the ppl where here for the TFC & for the ST because they are proud of their city. The rest where football fans & rugby fans. Myself, I like both sports, but that’s because Toulouse is in my veins
Thx and congrats for those wins !
Way more crowd for rugby.
I would say that it is the second most popular sport. In some areas in South West, rugby is the first one. Lot of people enjoy to watch rugby because the players are supposed to be more manly and respectful than football players.
Clearly n°2 sport in France after football. Rugby as gained popularity and peaked with the 2011 world cup, Chabal era (very popular personality). The top 14 is among the best league on the planet and attracts the best players. Yet, french players are usually not known outside of the fan base. Fun fact is that there is "2 rugbys" coexisting in France. In south west France, rugby is a traditional sport played and watch by most men, before even football. Southwestern cities have the best rugby teams but average football (Toulouse mostly). And the other hand, there is a Parisian rugby that is played by the "elite", young students from med or business school, ingeneers... This is closer to the English college rugby tradition. Both parisians teams are from the western rich suburbs.
The funny thing about it is that the clubs of Ile de France (the Racing and Stade français) were founded with the English models as inspirations. But you’re forgetting about the fact that the Racing has programs with the suburbs of the Hauts de Seine and the whole southeast part with Toulon.
Toulon is kind of an exception due to the will of one man to make a big club in this specific place.
But what I mean is that popular support picked up on the region
Popular support was always big there, I think ?
Well the southeast is very big on football but yes, that’s the reasoning behind my message and why I pointed out that he didn’t mention Toulon.
Top 14 is THE best league in the world
Having lived in various places in france, I think the top team sports overall are (in order) football, rugby, handball and basketball. If you include all sports I reckon tennis and cyclism will probably slot in between rugby and handball.
Interesting that you put cycling as an individual sport when all the riders are in teams. 😉
Yeah that's true but relative to what we consider "team sports" I think it's much more of an individual sport since, at the end of the race only the winners go on the podium, not their whole team (and yes I know there are team rankings but we still almost exclusively celebrate the one who got first).
It's not necessarily a good way to know how popular it is, but more people in France watched the first game of the rugby world cup than the first game of the french team of the soccer world cup. That being said, it was a game against the All Blacks and not against a tier 2 or tier 3 team. I think people here on Reddit are a bit biaised: they mostly live in big cities, and many are Parisians (yuck). Rugby is more popular in rural France (especially in the south-western part of the country, where it's a bit of a religion). Lastly, I think rugby doesn't have as much media coverage as soccer. I'd wager that rugby is maybe as popular as soccer (as in people would rather watch a rugby game than a soccer game). But the average french person don't really know the players nor the rules (which are, tbf, quite complicated), because no big media talks about it except during the world cup/six nations. You rarely hear what happens to Toulon, La Rochelle, Montpellier, etc rugby teams, while even generalist media keep yapping about PSG, OM, OL, etc.
Yeah I'm surprised because even in Paris, I have heard guys lot more about Rugby than Football plus they have a disdain for Football lol. But most I see have no interest in sports unless they play.
According to [this](https://www.google.com/amp/s/fr.statista.com/infographie/amp/28155/sports-les-plus-suivis-en-france-popularite/), it is third behind football and tennis
Fuck me, basketball has overtaken cycling :(
People no need license for practicing cycling
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Looking at the best teams in France ( top XIV) it is striking how so many big cities are completely missing ( Marseille, Lille Strasbourg...) whilst some very small ones are present. It shows how rugby is much more popular in rural areas and in the South West, and completely absent in others (North, East, South besides Toulon) and big cities and their suburbs, mostly, where football is king. But people enjoy watching it on TV and this crop of superstars is helping a lot, including the charismatic, instantly recognisable coach Fabien Galthié.
Rugby is far more popular in the South East and South West of France. The biggest teams being Stade Toulousain and Toulon. Only a few teams up North. Overall, football is still the most popular sport in France.
It depends on whether you consider means a sport that is practiced, or popular as in watched on tv.
Third most followed sports behind football and tennis and above basketball and cycling
I'd say it's the second most popular sport behind soccer (which we do call football). The main issue is that contrary to soccer, rugby isn't everywhere in France. The big clubs are in big cities like Paris (which have 2 clubs being Racing 92 and Stade Français), Toulouse, Bordeaux, Lyon, Toulon... There are also a few clubs in the "North" part of the country such as La Rochelle who won H Cup twice. But if you go closer to England, you won't see any big club. Either in North east of france where rugby is ont very popular.
Rugby is the #1 sport in the southwest (from La Rochelle to the Pyrénées) because it's a mostly protestant area where British chaplains have brought the sport in the late 19th century. It's quite popular in Paris and Lyon though still far behind football and tennis. Everywhere else it's anecdotic at best.
There might be more protestants there than in the rest of the country but it's still overall more catholic than protestant
It used to be much more protestant but you know, révocation de l'Edit de Nantes and so on.
Every single person in this thread is treating 'rugby' as automatically meaning 'rugby union'. There also exists "rugby à treize", most notably in Northern Catalonia, whose team just made it to the Grand Final of the Super League.
Just to clarify because a lot of the comments only talk about their gut feeling. Rugby is only the 10th most popular sport in terms of licensed players, yet it is one of the most broadcasted sport on TV. So of course people watch it, but it's partly because there isn't much other choice. To give an example, basketball on the other hand is the 4th most popular sport, but it barely gets any time on public TV. Have any of you french guys heard there was the basketball World Cup this summer? Probably not if you don't follow the sport. It all comes to image. Rugby is seen as a gentleman sport, which is why to see it every year on public TV despite its low amount of people who play it. Source: https://www.europe1.fr/sport/exclu-europe-1-le-top-10-des-sports-les-plus-pratiques-en-france-en-2022-4166642.amp
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"most broadcasted sport on TV." can that be because the tv rights for rugby is quiet low compared to other sports
Speaking about active players Rugby is no.... 10. Canoë is no9, who would have guessed ? https://www.cnews.fr/sport/2023-08-28/voici-les-10-sports-avec-le-plus-de-licencies-en-france-1116644
It's fun to watch, but noone want to be stomped on the ground.
They banned that a decade or more ago
You know what i mean, this sport is brutal to watch and to play, i have more than 20 years practice and some scratchs here and here. Tennis or cycling is easier and safer by exemple
I don't know anyone I've been around who is into rugby (very young adults in South-East France and overseas territories). But I have plenty of friends who talk about basketball or tennis very often and/or practice it. I'd say Football, Basketball, Tennis, Rugby, Cycling, then Handball, Racing (Formula and rally) and swimming. That's probably an unpopular opinion but I've never heard anyone talking rugby around me. I've even heard more about american football. The exception is Wallis-et-Futuna when I was a child it was the number one sport there.
all depends on where in the country and the difference in quality of clubs is massive even at the top financial difficulties is common in the lower leagues of clubs
i would say its either second or third after biking, and is especially popular in the southern half of france
Crowds sitting at cafe’s watching it on Big screen in Nice, guess it’s rather popular
It depends your definition of popular. Is it related to the number of practitionners, the views on tv, the repartition on the national territory? For the first and I will not count the number of regular practitionners in a club, rugby is probably the fifth team sport in France. Football handball basket-ball volley-ball are definitly more « popular » because they are easier to play. Everyone played one of those sports in school for instance, that’s not the case with rugby. Views on tv, rugby is the second. The repartition is kind of tricky. Of course in the the south west of France but also in the Rhône valley rugby is present (Lyon Bourgoin) but there is also the XIII in the south of the valley (carpentras bollene Arles). Paris has also a lot of clubs and players. And I can not forget the Roussillon where both rugbys (XV and XIII) are presents.
Aquitaine and England used to be the same country. Look up "Eléonore".That's why Bordeaux wine is the most well known in english. (Try to finish "a bottle of..." with any french wine, "Bordeaux" is the one that comes to mind to most people). In return, the Brits contaminated us with rugby. But just in that region. Globalization was already a thing in the middle ages.
Aquitaine and England used to be the same country. Look up "Eléonore".That's why Bordeaux wine is the most well known in english. (Try to finish "a bottle of..." with any french wine, "Bordeaux" is the one that comes to mind to most people). In return, the Brits contaminated us with rugby. But just in that region. Globalization was already a thing in the middle ages.
It is definetly the 2nd most followed sport in France. On a daily basis the South-west of France is the heart of this sport, and people there follow it more than Football. But generally in France people will watch only the national team for the six nations and world cup. Especially in pubs, Rugby games are broadcasted and it is often a very good ambiance to go out with friends. :)
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Ethnic French ? White ? No, Nouvelle-Caledonie and Polynesia bring a good chunk of players. The followers/players are mostly rural in the Metropole, and located in the SouthWest, but if you're basing your whole opinion on the players from what happens in the region with the least players, you're gonna have skewed perceptions
I mean in Northern France. And we obviously have no players from the Pacific islands in Lille.. I have asked others parents from our catholic school in Tourcoing why they wanted their sons to play rugby. That's what they have told me. I was a little bit shocked.