Looking back at the Club Delville breakfast with Claude Atcher
On Tuesday 12 April, Club Delville welcomed Claude Atcher for a breakfast to discuss the Rugby World Cup France 2023. It was in 2017 that France's bid to host the 2023 Rugby World Cup was selected — a first victory that marked the launch of the GIP (Groupement d'Intérêt Public), the body tasked with organising the 10th edition of this global event. To ensure the eight weeks of competition scheduled for autumn 2023 would be a success, Claude Atcher's teams were mobilised around several key areas: organisation, financing, management, logistics, ticketing, and the challenges and risks involved in hosting a major tournament on home soil. Over a breakfast organised by Delphine Phillipe (Club Delville Manager), followed by a conference led by Jean-Yves Marrec (Mission Director) and Patrick Abadie (Founder of Delville Management), Claude Atcher was first able to outline the various dimensions involved in organising a Rugby World Cup, before taking questions from the floor.
A matter of responsibility and leading by example
Rugby World Cup France 2023 was an opportunity to showcase France on the world stage through the French art de vivre, while also raising the profile of the sport within France itself in order to grow the number of registered players. Claude Atcher chose to compare the challenge of organising such an event to a rugby match. "We will need to stay focused and consistent right until the final whistle if we want to be able to say this event was a success." To deliver a world-class organisation, two guiding principles were adopted: responsibility and leading by example. It would therefore be essential to demonstrate that France deserved to have been selected ahead of countries such as South Africa and Ireland — historically two of the most influential nations in world rugby.
