Les Bleues haven't played at this stadium for ten years. Scrum-half Alexandra Chambon remembers the day well as a 14-year-old amongst the crowd.
“I was in the stands at the World Cup. I attended the final and the bronze medal match,” she recalls. On that day in August 2014, hooker Gaëlle Mignot's France - back when she was a key member of the team on the field, rather than off it - beat Ireland 25-18 in front of a sparse crowd.
The crowd and atmosphere are expected to be much bigger on Sunday when Italy come to Paris for round three of the Guinness Women's Six Nations. After all, playing in Paris has become a rare occurrence for Les Bleues.
Since their first official Test match on 6 April 1991, the Women's XV de France have toured the length and breadth of their nation. Of their 208 Test matches to date, only three have been played in Paris itself: once at Charlety in 2012 and twice at Jean-Bouin two years later. Sunday will be only the fourth time they have played in the capital.
Of course, they have played in other stadiums around Paris - Savigny-sur-Orge, Massy, Melun, Saint-Denis, Evreux, Viry-Châtillon... - and only once at the Stade de France. That was on 24 November 2012, during the USA women's autumn tour. The match was played as a prelude to a men's match between France and Samoa.
PLAYING FREESTYLE
In what is already shaping up to be a great party for women's rugby, there is sure to be plenty of on-field entertainment as the two Latin teams go head-to-head for the 27th time in their history.
“The thing about the Latin teams is that they like to produce a lot of play and are a bit unpredictable. Whereas the British teams are a bit more structured,” says back rower Romane Ménager (27, 59 caps). “We're hoping that having two Latin teams playing against each other will give us plenty to play for and make for a great match.”
Prop Clara Joyeux (26, 42 caps) is no different: “They like to play, they like to get the ball in play and they have wingers who are very quick. We've got to front up. We're going to have to play a big game and try to slow them down and try to interfere with their ball in the set-pieces or in the breakdowns and try to block them as much as possible.”
Laura Di Muzio, the France Télévision commentator for the women's team, fears that “hosting Italy could be a trap game”, but she is not the only one to be wary, and the French are preparing accordingly.
“The Italians have a very good back line and a very good pack. Behind them are some iconic players like Béatrice Rigoni and Véronica Madia. These are girls who like to play with the ball in their hands and are very good at it,” points out scrum-half Alexandra Chambon (23, 19 caps).
In the backs for Italy is winger Aura Muzzo, and in the pack is hooker Vittoria Vecchini, who scored a brace in the 21-27 second-round win over the Irish, Italy's first ever Championship win in Ireland. It's enough to give them hope for Sunday's match.
WHY ITALY'S TAILS ARE UP
Another reason for Italy's confidence comes from two of their previous home matches against France: a 26-19 win in Biella in a warm-up match in 2022 for the WXV and, before that, a 31-12 win in Padua in the Guinness Women's Six Nations 2019. That victory ended a run of four successive defeats to France and was also the most points scored against Les Bleues, and the biggest margin of victory to date.
Since then, France have made up for lost time with two victories: 39-3 at the 2021 Women's Rugby World Cup in New Zealand, and 22-12 in last year's Championship.
With their confidence boosted and refreshed after a week's break, can the Squadra Azzurra pull off an upset in France, where they have never won? They did it in Ireland, so why not in France? The record is inexorable: in 37 years of meetings between the two countries, Italy have failed to win in France in 12 attempts. They are counting on the 13th to bring them luck.
“They're a very big nation with players who play in France and England. They're a team that knows how to play all the different styles of the game,” says Gaëlle Hermet (27, 60 caps).
“For several years now they've been showing that Italian women's rugby is here to stay. We're expecting a big game from them, with a lot of commitment, a lot of fight and a lot of play. We've got to be able to put our game together. We have to be ultra-precise, ultra-demanding and deadly in their half. We really want to make a statement against them.”
FRANCE EXPECT TO 'FIGHT HARD'
And that may be the difficulty for the French side this season. The motto of the coaching duo of Gaëlle Mignot and David Ortiz is "dare to try". And that's exactly what the Tricolores have been doing so far in this tournament, although it hasn't been without error.
Romane Ménager echoed the idea that you can't make an omelette without breaking eggs: “We've gained a lot of confidence from playing a lot. Now we have to try and put that into practice. We have to take our shots. That's what we're going to concentrate on over the next few weeks and hopefully the work we're starting to do will pay off this weekend.
“Italy are a team that always play hard and last for 80 minutes,” observes centre Emeline Gros (28, 11 caps). “We'll have to wear them down and find our strategy to get at their weaknesses. We'll have opportunities that will open up and then we'll be able to look for a bit more aerial play and a bit more open play.
“We also have weapons. We know how to slow the ball down, we're defending better than we used to and we're making progress. When we're up front, we like to get our heads in the game and when we're playing mauls, we like to have that confrontation with the girls in front of us. We all want to challenge each other in those phases of the game. It's not something we're afraid of.”
Find out how you can watch every game of Guinness Women's Six Nations round three here.
