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Beer, balls and tackles: French vocab you’ll need for the Rugby World Cup

Nine cities, hundreds of players from 20 countries, 48 matches, a lot of beer and probably a few torn ears - yes, it's nearly time for the Rugby World Cup which this year is hosted in France.

Published: 11 August 2023 12:09 CEST
Updated: 9 September 2023 07:25 CEST
Beer, balls and tackles: French vocab you'll need for the Rugby World Cup
Photo by Stefano RELLANDINI / AFP

The tournament gets underway on Friday, September 8th, with an opening ceremony at Stade de France featuring French actor (and rugby fan) Jean Dujardin, followed by the opening match between France and New Zealand.

It lasts for seven weeks, culminating in the final on October 28th, also at Stade de France. Nine cities will host matches during the tournament – Bordeaux, Toulouse, Marseille, Nice, Lyon, Lille, Saint-Denis, Nantes and Saint-Etienne.

READ ALSO What you need to know about visiting France for the Rugby World Cup

Tickets were mostly snapped up early, but for those who missed out there will be official fan zones in the nine host cities, plus Paris, and bars up and down the country will be showing the games. One of the big aims of the tournament is to grow the game and entice along people who might not previously have watched rugby.

So whether you’re new to the game or a die-hard fan, here are some helpful French phrases to know. 

General

Une bière, s’il vous plaît – while spectators at next year’s Paris Olympics might be going thirsty, organisers of the Rugby World Cup have reassured fans that alcohol will be available in all the stadiums during the tournament.

Allez les bleus – a handy all-purpose phrase that means ‘go France’ as the French rugby team (and football team in fact) are known as ‘the blues’.

Allez les gars – come on guys/go team. More general all-purpose encouragement.

Allez putain – the slightly more X-rated version of ‘come on guys’, for when things get really tense.

Le ballon – the ball.

Un essai – a try (or score for rugby newcomers), usually bellowed out as essaiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii. Scoring one of these gives a team five points. 

Une transformation – a conversion. After scoring a try, the team get a chance to ‘convert’ it – ie add two more points – with a kick at goal. The aim is to get the ball over a horizontal bar connecting two very tall poles. Where the try is scored dictates the location of the following conversion kick.

Une pénalité – the other time you’ll see someone getting a free kick at the goal is when they have been awarded a penalty. If they succeed in getting it over the bar, they get three points. 

Pénaltouche – sometimes a side that wins a penalty doesn’t go for goal, but rather kicks for the sidelines, because they will get the resulting throw-in. This is, delightfully, known as a pénaltouche.

Merci de respecter le buteur – the player who takes the kick is known as le buteur, and when they’re lining up for their kick attempt you’ll see this sign (thank you for respecting the kicker) which is asking you to be quiet while they take the kick. We’re pretty sure that French grounds just put this up as a joke, as kick attempts are among the loudest part of the games, as opposing fans yell, boo, whistle and generally do their best to distract the player. 

Essai de pénalité – a penalty try – these are awarded when foul play prevents a probable try from being scored. These are automatically worth the full seven points of a try plus a conversion.

Un plaquage – a tackle. Rules on this have got stricter in recent years and players can be harshly penalised for any tackle that is judged to be dangerous such as a tackle that targets the head or neck. 

Un carton jaune – yellow card. The player is sent to the ‘sin bin’ for 10 minutes before being allowed to rejoin the game.

Un carton rouge – red card. The player is sent off for the rest of the match and his team have to continue with 14 players. They’re usually given for dangerous play and often involve other post-match sanctions too, such as a ban for a certain number of games.

Rules* 

Don’t believe what they say, no-one really understands how the highly intricate laws** of rugby are actually applied to the struggling pile of bodies on the pitch. But the complexity – and the fact that they’re constantly changing – mean that fans never run out of things to talk/argue about.

Here’s some phrases you might hear when things get technical:

La mêlée – the scrum

Mêlée spontanée – a ruck. Basically, a heap of bodies that spontaneously forms in the vicinity of the ball after a tackle.

Hors-jeu – offside. Don’t even try to understand rugby’s offside laws. Just insist your preferred side is always harshly refereed on offside, while the shamelessly cheating other side are getting away with being permanently offside. Even when they’re not. Alternatively, bellow HORS-JEU! at every ruck. You’ll probably be right. Especially in a match involving Ireland.

En-avant – knock on. When a player drops the ball in front of themselves. Also used to describe a pass that goes forward. Be prepared for in-depth discussions involving physics at some point during the tournament as fans debate whether a certain try-scoring pass was actually forward, or went forward as a result of impetus. You’ll be astonished how many science professors are also rugby fans.

Un Plaquage haut – high tackle. If a tackle is judged to be too high on the player’s body (ie above the shoulder) it can result in a red card, which can decide the entire outcome of a game. Expect to hear much yelling and swearing from fans if the referee rules that a tackle was too high.

Une chistera – a behind-the-back pass. Usually delivered by a flashy scrum-half, or similar.

L’arbitre – the referee

Putain d’arbitre – *ù0%ing referee. As in most sports, the ref cops for a lot of (mostly good natured) abuse when fans decide that he is blind/paid off by the other team/hasn’t read the rule book.

Arbitre vidéo/TMO – video referee or TMO (third match official) who has the final say after a review of a piece of play on the big screen

Ces nouvelles règles – these new rules. World Rugby loves tinkering with the rules of the game and for this tournament several new rules have been put into place – die-hard fans usually like nothing more than complaining about how ‘these new rules’ are ruining the game.

Celebrations and commentary

Let’s be optimistic and assume that France do well (as the bookies believe they will, les bleus are among the favourites to win the tournament).

Ouiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii – hopefully self-explanatory, a shouted ‘yes’ when things go well, tries are scored etc

Ola – a Mexican wave. A crowd celebration thing that some fun-sponge fans detest. Ignore them, and join in.

Quel essai ! – what a try!

Quelle caramel ! – what a tackle! Nothing to do with confectionery, a ‘caramel‘ is the name for a big-hitting but legal tackle. 

Ooooh là là là là la là – Something good / bad is happening / has just happened. Intonation is everything. Pay attention on hearing an excited upnote. Put your head in your hands, on a low, downbeat tone.

Pas de faute … pas de faute – an oft-repeated phrase by tense French broadcasters (we’re looking at you, Dimitri Yachvili) when one team is defending close to their own tryline in a tense match.

On est en finale – we’re in the final. Popular with all types of sports fans in France, find the tune below. You might also hear ‘on est en demi‘ – we’re in the semi final.

Na na na na na na na na na na – not actually French as such, but the 90s dance hit Freed from Desire is regularly sung during and after matches so you’re likely to hear its infuriatingly catchy refrain at least once.

Allons enfants de la Patrie – Let’s go, children of the fatherland. France is blessed with one of the world’s best anthems for sporting events. Naturally La Marseillaise is sung before each match that France plays in, but if you’re in the stadium you’ll hear fans spontaneously belting it out at key moments during the match.

Find the full words, tune and translation here.

Odds and ends

Une grève – a strike. This is France, after all, so it’s possible that strike action could hit during the tournament – public transport workers in Paris are already in dispute with bosses over the bonuses they will be paid during the tournament. Strikes can lead to pertubations (disruption) on public transport. You can keep with all the latest strike news here.

L’ovalie – this means the ‘oval world’, referring to the oval-shaped rugby ball and refers to rugby fans in general and more specifically the south-west of France, which is the country’s rugby heartland (in the north, football is more popular).

Rugby treize – er, wrong sport. This World Cup is for rugby union. The slightly different sport of rugby league is referred to a rugby treize in France, because of the 13-person teams (as opposed to 15 in a rugby union team). A fan of rugby league is known as a trieziste. Rugby treize gets less money, attention and TV airtime in France than union, but the game is growing.

*Yes, we know. Rugby has Laws, not Rules… 

**See?

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TRAVEL NEWS

Travel, events, closures: What to expect over France’s double public holiday this week

Workers in France will benefit from two back-to-back bank holidays this week, with many planning to take the day off on Friday too. From traffic to weather and closures plus strikes, here's what to expect during the public holidays.

Published: 6 May 2024 11:44 CEST
Travel, events, closures: What to expect over France's double public holiday this week

May 2024 is a special one for workers in France, with four public holidays scattered throughout the month, including two (VE Day and Ascension) being back-to-back.

The double bank holiday will lead to offices being closed across the country on Wednesday and Thursday. As such, many people will try to ‘faire le pont’ by taking Friday off as well, giving themselves five consecutive days off work.

In terms of planes and trains, there will likely be larger crowds and longer queues than normal. France’s national rail service SNCF say their trains will be at 95 percent capacity during the holiday period.

As for strikes, previously, French air traffic controllers had threatened to walk out over the jours fériés (bank holidays), but after reaching an agreement with management this was cancelled. 

French cabin crew of the Spanish low-cost airline Vueling did file a strike notice from Wednesday, May 8th to Sunday, May 12th, and this appears to be going forward. If you have a flight booked with Vueling, be sure to check its status before heading to the airport.

READ MORE: French airline staff file strike notice for May holiday weekend

Here is what you can expect in terms of traffic, weather, closures and other events during the first week of May.

Tuesday

Events and closures – Tuesday will be a normal working day, so you can expect shops and grocery stores to operate with normal hours.

Traffic – While Tuesday is not a jour férié, it is expected to be the big day for departures.

According to French traffic watchdog Bison Futé, traffic on French roads will be ‘very heavy’, as people head off on their short holidays.

Try to give yourself extra time to reach your destination.

Credit: Bison Futé

Weather – Forecasters expect rain across much of the country, with the exception of the far west which will start to see sunny skies. In southern France, storms are predicted from mid-afternoon and into the evening. 

Maximum temperatures are expected to range from 14C to 19C in the north of France, and from 11C to 20C in the southern half.

Wednesday (VE Day)

Events and closures – Most workers will have Wednesday off for VE (Victory in Europe) Day. This year will mark the 79th anniversary of the end of the war.

There will be parades and events commemorating the event across the country, but the main one will take place in Paris under the Arc de Triomphe, as a wreath is laid at the tomb of the unknown solider.

The ceremony will be broadcast live on French public television starting at 9.25am. This year President Emmanuel Macron will be in Marseille for the event, in part because it will also fall on the same day that the Olympic Torch will arrive in France. 

You may also see people wearing a bleuet (cornflower) in their lapel – this is the official flower of remembrance in France. Although the wearing of it is more widespread on November 11th – Armistice Day – some people also wear them on May 8th.

In smaller towns and villages, people might gather for drinks or lunch at local war memorials.

Because it is a public holiday, expect administrative offices in France to remain closed, and the same will go for banks and some shops.

Supermarkets usually remain open – often with reduced hours – while shops in the bigger cities are also likely to be open. In most places, cafés and restaurants open as normal so you can enjoy lunch or drinks with friends and family to celebrate the day off work.

Traffic – In terms of traffic, Bison Futé predicts that the situation will be moderately difficult for departures.

Credit: Bison Futé

Weather – People in France can rejoice as the sun makes its return. Other than in the far north early on in the day, expect sunshine and mostly blue skies – though occasionally stormy showers may develop in the southeast later on. 

Temperatures of between 17C and 20C are forecast in the northern half of the country, and between 18C and 21C further south.

Thursday (Ascension)

Events and closures – Expect banks and public services to be closed on Ascension Day (Thursday). Shops may operate reduced hours or services – supermarkets may close their Drive operations for the day, for example – but many open as normal.

As Ascension is a Christian festival, there will be special mass services at local churches. 

Traffic – Roads in France will be clear, with ‘normal’ traffic conditions according to Bison Futé.

Weather – Temperatures are expected to be mild, with sunny skies. There may be a few clouds in northern France, but the south is forecast to have wall-to-wall sunshine for most of the day. Isolated storms may develop in the southern Alps late in the day.

Temperatures of between 18C and 20C are forecast in the northern half of the country, and between 19C and 24C further south.

Friday

Events and closures – Even though Friday is not a public holiday, the fact that it straddles two days off and a weekend means that some public services and businesses may shut completely. Meanwhile, most schools give their pupils (and teachers) and extra day off on Friday to allow for a long weekend away.

Otherwise, you can expect the majority of stores, restaurants, supermarkets and cafés to open with normal operating hours.

Traffic – Another clear day. Bison Futé predicts normal traffic on French roads.

Weather – Forecasters predict that overcast conditions will return in the northern half of the country on Friday – perhaps to remind everyone that it’s not quite summer yet – but the skies are expected to remain clear in the south, with temperatures forecast to climb past 25C in the southwest of the country.

Saturday

Events and closures – Aside from extra crowds at popular holiday locations, there not are expected to be  any closures or changes to hours that are out of the ordinary for a Saturday.

Traffic – As people start heading home, slowdowns will increase on French motorways. Across the country, expect return trips to experience moderate to difficult traffic conditions.

Credit: Bison Futé

Weather – Other than a few thunderstorms in the south of the country, expect dry, warm, sunny weather across the whole of France over the weekend, with early summer temperatures reaching into the upper 20s celsius to match.

Sunday

Events and closures -There not are expected to be any closures or changes to hours that are out of the ordinary for a Sunday. However, if you are spending time in the French countryside and you hail from a city, remember that supermarkets and shops tend to close earlier than normal on Sundays.

Traffic – Bison Futé predicts that return travel will be congested on Sunday, as holidaymakers head home after enjoying the May public holidays. Traffic is expected to be ‘black’ (extremely slow) in the north-west, while the rest of the country has been marked in red for (very slow). You can consult their predictions here.

Credit: Bison Futé

Weather – Same forecast as Saturday.

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