Rugby World Cup Organisers address opening weekend concerns in France

Tournament director Michel Poussau, France 2023 Chairman Jacques Rivoal and France 2023 CEO Julien Collette all fronted the media to give clarity on shortcomings over the weekend and improvements going forward.

Poussau was pleased with how the opening weekend kicked off.

"From our point of view, it has been a very successful start, a very successful first eight games," he said. "We have had amazing action, moments of passion and communion both on and off the field.

"It has been history in the making. I'm especially very glad to have Chile join the Rugby World Cup for the first time. Looking forward, we really can't wait for Portugal."

While the action on the pitch was certainly entertaining, it came with issues at the stadium, including fans struggling to get through the gates in time for the England-Argentina match while some of the stadiums ran out of beer and refreshments during the games.

"We want to [stop] the frustration of some of our fans, for example, not being able to make their way to the stadium in Marseille or Bordeaux. We are very confident this will be fixed over the weekend," Poussau said on the issues of fans getting into the venues.

"There were challenges in Marseille and Bordeaux, but France 2023 has worked hard, and in these two cases, the second game was a lot better than the first one. I think we should thank France 2023 for this and the people on the ground who had a limited amount of time. They have tried to address the challenges and find solutions."

Collette added: "We are working very closely with the state and our partners to ensure maximum fluidity in the transport network so we can increase the number of tramways here and there where we need to.

"From Sunday in Marseille, we have increased the information for fans thanks to a system of direct messaging [CRM]. We are going to deploy France 2023 volunteers and local groups to encourage the fans to access the stadiums earlier and take advantage of the entertainment inside the fan zones.

"In Nice, we envisage opening the refreshment bars for longer before the matches."

The sweltering heat in France meant that fans purchased more drinks than expected, which left many stalls running out of stock before the conclusion of the matches.

Poussau claimed that there was no shortage of beer but rather a problem with keeping them cold.

"We know there was no beer shortage, there was no lack of beer," he said.

"It was a series of unfortunate difficulties. We are going to be working with France 2023, the venues and our partners - who have done an amazing job helping us address these challenges - to improve the situation."

Collette added that the heatwave contributed to their shortages and led to long lines of supporters.

"The fans' experience is at the heart of our concerns, and we understand the disappointment of fans after the first weekend," he said.

"We have had a heatwave in September, which has never happened before, which had two major consequences. The fans drank a lot more – we thought we had sufficient supplies based on previous records, but those records were broken."

READ MORE: BREAKING: Springboks suffer Malcolm Marx Rugby World Cup blow