Organisers hail crazy crowd for Uruguay v Namibia

LILLE, France : Rugby World Cup organisers said that the near-50,000 crowd that turned up for last week's Uruguay v Namibia match showed how much France had embraced the tournament, which continues to set domestic records for viewing figures.

An official crowd of 49,332, the vast majority French neutrals, watched last Wednesday's Pool A "Clash of the Minnows" in Lyon and were treated to a hugely entertaining 36-24 win for the South Americans.

"Something that grabbed my attention was the 49,332 spectators who watched the Uruguay v Namibia match, not on a weekend, and I think we need to underscore this," Jacques Rivoal, President of France 2023 said in a Zoom press conference on Wednesday.

"We have never had such a crowd for a match between emerging nations in a World Cup. For comparison, it is four times larger than the Georgia v Namibia match in the 2015 World Cup and the same as we saw for the quarter-finals four years ago.

"So it's truly a historic record for rugby that we can really be proud of."

Rivoal said that ticket sales and TV audiences in France were "truly exceptional" and matched their pre-tournament ambitions.

Michel Poussau, RWC 2023 tournament director, said they were seeing a younger and more diverse audience engagement which was great for the growth of the game.

"In France we have reached an audience more than 128 million, which is already as much as the entirety of Rugby World Cup 2015 in England and more than for 2019 in Japan - still with only 32 games played," he said.

"The highest audience last weekend was the game in Lyon between New Zealand and Italy with 5.3 million viewers. That is 30 per cent more than the Champions League final in 2023."

More than 1.5 million people have been in the stadiums and close