Inevitably, there will be fireworks. But the biggest bang of all will come when the two favourites for the tournament, France and New Zealand, lock muscle and bone in the opening game, and 80,000 people at the Stade de France roar their approval.
Organisers hope it will set the mood for a competition that stretches over 48 matches and 51 days - and is more than three weeks longer than the Fifa World Cup in Qatar. The initial signs are positive.
Teams have been welcomed to their training bases by huge crowds. Images of the French captain, Antoine Dupont, are everywhere. And 2.5m tickets have been sold, the most ever, with 600,000 visitors arriving from abroad. Among them are the Prince and Princess of Wales, who will be in Bordeaux and Marseille to cheer on Wales and England this weekend.
Make no mistake, this is one of the biggest sporting events of 2023. Yet in the highest circles of the French government and sport, it is being viewed with bifocal lenses. For this tournament also sounds the starting gun for a year-long saturnalia of sport in France that concludes with Paris hosting the Olympics and Paralympics.
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