The three venues for France’s home fixtures in the 2024 Guinness Six Nations have been confirmed, with Marseille, Lille and Lyon being the chosen destinations.
With the 2024 Summer Olympics being staged in Paris next year, largely at the Stade de France, Les Bleus’ are moving away from their traditional home for the first time in Six Nations history.
They will kick off the entire Championship against Grand Slam winners Ireland at Marseille’s Orange Velodrome on Friday February 2. After a trip to Scotland in round two, they will return to home soil for their round three clash with Italy, this time at Lille’s Decathlon Arena. Another away trip to Wales follows that, before France host England in the final match of the Championship at the Groupama Stadium in Lyon.
All three stadiums are primarily used for football, but they are all host venues for the upcoming World Cup in France.
Marseille’s 67,000 capacity Stade Velodrome will be hosting four pool stage matches at the World Cup (England versus Argentina, South Africa versus Scotland, France versus Namibia and South Africa versus Tonga) as well as two quarter-finals. France also hosted South Africa in Marseille last autumn, where the atmosphere was no less rapturous than it usually is in Paris.
Lille’s 50,000 capacity Decathlon Arena has five pool stages matches (France versus Uruguay, England versus Chile, Scotland versus Romania, England versus Samoa and Tonga versus Romania), while Lyon’s 59,000 capacity Groupama Stadium will also have five pool stage matches (Wales versus Australia, Uruguay versus Namibia, the All Blacks versus Italy, the All Blacks versus Uruguay and France versus Italy).
France last lost at the Stade de France in the Six Nations in 2021 against Scotland, albeit in an empty stadium. It was the opening round of the 2019 Championship that they last lost in front of a capacity crowd, meaning they will be losing a mini-fortress next year.
