"France 2007 didn't live up to the billing. Rugby wasn't in a great spot"

Splashes of colour on a drab canvas - that was the World Cup when it was last played in France 16 years ago. Stephen Jones anticipates more magic and magnetism this time around

THE WORLD Cup goes back to France later this year only 16 years after it was last played there. This is a tribute to the nation’s potential brilliance as a host, their priceless ability to draw crowds to the pro game and to maximise income through their business community.

No doubt, too, it is a tribute to their officialdom and work behind the scenes and it is for others to judge whether all that work was ethical, either before 2007 or more recently.

La belle France. That tournament in 2007 was set up to deliver everything and more. The potential seemed mighty. You can still remember the thrill two days before the start when they turned on the lasers around the Eiffel Tower, framing the grand old structure with rugby posts and with a giant ball hanging down from the crossbar. It was a symbol of the nation joining the party.

The poster player for the tournament was Sébastien Chabal, the No 8, who was digitally remastered so that he appeared throughout the tournament on every poster and, so it seemed, every television show as a horrible, snarling cartoon beast. As the face of the tournament, he was every bit as pervasive as Chester Williams was in South Africa in 1995, albeit for totally different reasons.

But did 2007 in France deliver? The only World Cup which came close to being bad was the 1999 effort hosted by Wales – at least, it was supposed to be in Wales before all the other home unions came in snatching games away.

Certainly the 2007 tournament in France was by no means bad. It was often sumptuous, had memorable moments, but did it really get there?

Granted, there was plenty of brilliant action and some of the memories come flooding back.