The Stade Ernest-Wallon (; oc, Estadi Ernest-Wallon, italic=no; ) is a multi-purpose stadium located in the Sept Deniers district of

Toulouse Toulouse ( , ; oc, Tolosa ) is the prefecture of the French department of Haute-Garonne and of the larger region of Occitania. The city is on the banks of the River Garonne, from the Mediterranean Sea, from the Atlantic Ocean and fr ...

, in southwestern

France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of Overseas France, overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic, Pacific Ocean, Pac ...

. Described as a "temple to the oval ball", it is the

home ground In sports, home is the place and venue identified with a team sport. Most professional teams are named for, and marketed to, particular metropolitan areas; amateur teams may be drawn from a particular region, or from institutions such as sch ...

for the

rugby union Rugby union, commonly known simply as rugby, is a close-contact team sport that originated at Rugby School in the first half of the 19th century. One of the two codes of rugby football, it is based on running with the ball in hand. In it ...

club

Stade Toulousain Stade Toulousain () ( oc, Estadi Tolosenc), also referred to as Toulouse, is a professional rugby union club based in Toulouse, France. They compete in the Top 14, France's top division of rugby, and the European Rugby Champions Cup. Tou ...

and the

rugby league Rugby league football, commonly known as just rugby league and sometimes football, footy, rugby or league, is a full-contact sport played by two teams of thirteen players on a rectangular field measuring 68 metres (75 yards) wide and 112 ...

club

Toulouse Olympique Toulouse Olympique or TO XIII is a professional rugby league club in Toulouse, south-west France. Founded in 1937, two years after the French Rugby League Federation, the club is a six-time winner of the French Rugby League Championship. The ...

History

When the land surrounding Stade Toulousian's home ground, the

Stade des Ponts Jumeaux The Stade des Ponts Jumeaux (the "Twin Bridges Stadium") was a rugby union stadium, inaugurated on 24 November 1907, in the ''Ponts Jumeaux'' district of Toulouse, south-western France. The land was purchased by the embryonic Stade Toulousain rug ...

, was

expropriated Eminent domain (United States, Philippines), land acquisition (India, Malaysia, Singapore), compulsory purchase/acquisition (Australia, New Zealand, Ireland, United Kingdom), resumption (Hong Kong, Uganda), resumption/compulsory acquisition (Austr ...

by the local government in order to build a motorway, they were compelled by law to offer the club land and funding to build identical facilities in exchange for the expropriation. The club chose a parcel of land about a kilometre away in the Sept-Deniers district and began construction of a new stadium in 1978. The Stade Ernest-Wallon was opened on 4 December 1983 with an international

fixture; a first-division FIRA Trophy match which saw France's national team defeat

Romania Romania ( ; ro, România ) is a country located at the crossroads of Central Europe, Central, Eastern Europe, Eastern, and Southeast Europe, Southeastern Europe. It borders Bulgaria to the south, Ukraine to the north, Hungary to the west, S ...

Sports

Rugby union

In international rugby union competition, France's national men's team have not played at the stadium since their opening game in 1983, though the national women's team played against

Ireland Ireland ( ; ga, Éire ; Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean, in north-western Europe. It is separated from Great Britain to its east by the North Channel, the Irish Sea, and St George's Channel. Ireland is the s ...

at the stadium in February 2018 during the team's eventual grand slam-winning Six Nations campaign. The national men's teams of other nations have played at the stadium, however. During the

1991 Rugby World Cup The 1991 Rugby World Cup was the second edition of the Rugby World Cup, and was jointly hosted by England, Scotland, Wales, Ireland and France: at the time, the five European countries who participated in the Five Nations Championship. This was ...

held in France, the stadium hosted a single game; a pool 4 match that saw

Gabriel Vlad Gabriel Vlad (born 9 April 1969 in Bucharest) is a former Romanian former rugby union football player. He played as a prop. Club career During his career Vlad played for Romanian club RC Grivița. He also played in France for RC Narbonne. Inter ...

make his international debut for

in a defeat against

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by to ...

. End-of-year test matches in November 2017 between

Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the n ...

and

Tonga Tonga (, ; ), officially the Kingdom of Tonga ( to, Puleʻanga Fakatuʻi ʻo Tonga), is a Polynesian country and archipelago. The country has 171 islands – of which 45 are inhabited. Its total surface area is about , scattered over in ...

, and France and Japan, were originally planned to take place at the

Stade Pierre-Mauroy The Stade Pierre-Mauroy, also known as the Decathlon Arena – Stade Pierre-Mauroy for sponsorship reasons, is a multi-use retractable roof stadium in Villeneuve-d'Ascq (Métropole Européenne de Lille), France, that opened in August 2012. It ha ...

in southeastern

Lille Lille ( , ; nl, Rijsel ; pcd, Lile; vls, Rysel) is a city in the northern part of France, in French Flanders. On the river Deûle, near France's border with Belgium, it is the capital of the Hauts-de-France region, the prefecture of the No ...

. A scheduling conflict then arose with the semi-finals and final of the

2017 Davis Cup The 2017 Davis Cup was the 106th edition of the Davis Cup, a tournament between national teams in men's tennis. It was sponsored by BNP Paribas. France won their tenth title (their first since 2001), with Lucas Pouille defeating Steve Darcis of ...

tennis Tennis is a racket sport that is played either individually against a single opponent (singles) or between two teams of two players each (doubles). Each player uses a tennis racket that is strung with cord to strike a hollow rubber ball cov ...

tournament, which were also planned to be held at the Stade Pierre-Mauroy, leading to a relocation of the Japan–Tonga match to the Stade Ernest-Wallon and the France–Japan match to the

U Arena U or u, is the twenty-first and sixth-to-last letter and fifth vowel letter of the Latin alphabet, used in the modern English alphabet, the alphabets of other western European languages and others worldwide. Its name in English is ''u'' (pro ...

Nanterre Nanterre (, ) is the prefecture of the Hauts-de-Seine department in the western suburbs of Paris. It is located some northwest of the centre of Paris. In 2018, the commune had a population of 96,807. The eastern part of Nanterre, bordering t ...

. Japan recorded a victory of 33 points during the game, which is their biggest winning margin over Tonga in their history.

Rugby sevens

During the 2021–22 season of international rugby sevens competition, the Stade Ernest-Wallon became the new venue for the annual

France Sevens The France Sevens, also called the Paris Sevens, is an annual international rugby sevens tournament that is one of ten competitions on the annual World Rugby Sevens Series. The France Sevens is generally held in May or June on the weekend follo ...

and

France Women's Sevens The France Women's Sevens is an annual women's rugby sevens tournament, and one of the stops on the World Rugby Women's Sevens Series. France joined in the fourth year of the Series. As of the current 2019–20 season, the tournament is held ...

tournaments, taking over hosting duties from the Stade Jean-Bouin in Paris. While the men's tournament is one of the later stages of the men's seven series, the women's tournament serves as the final leg of the women's series, and the champion of the series is crowned at the stadium.

Rugby league

In international rugby league competition, France's national men's team have played three matches at the Stade Ernest-Wallon; two friendlies – a loss to

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands. With an area of , Australia is the largest country by ...

in November 2004, and a loss to

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe ...

in June 2008 – and a Four Nations match in October 2009 which France lost to

New Zealand New Zealand ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and over 700 smaller islands. It is the sixth-largest island coun ...

. The

Perpignan Perpignan (, , ; ca, Perpinyà ; es, Perpiñán ; it, Perpignano ) is the prefecture of the Pyrénées-Orientales department in southern France, in the heart of the plain of Roussillon, at the foot of the Pyrenees a few kilometres from the ...

rugby league club

Catalans Dragons The Catalans Dragons (French: ''Dragons Catalans'', Catalan: ''Dracs Catalans'') are a professional rugby league club from Perpignan, Pyrénées-Orientales department, France. The team competes in the Super League and are the only team from outs ...

, who play in the

British rugby league system The British rugby league system is based on a five-tier structure administered by the Rugby Football League. There is no system of automatic promotion and relegation between all five tiers although teams have moved between them in the past. Since ...

, played a regular season

Super League The Super League (officially known as the Betfred Super League due to sponsorship from Betfred and legally known as Super League Europe), is the top-level of the British rugby league system. At present the league consists of twelve teams, of w ...

home game at the Stade Ernest-Wallon in June 2013 to an unprecedented crowd of 14,858 spectators, as part of an initiative to promote rugby league in France as a Super League expansion opportunity during the era of the licensing system. The club, however, were fined £2,000 by the

Rugby Football League The Rugby Football League is the governing body for professional rugby league in England, and until 1995 for the whole British Isles. The name Rugby Football League previously also referred to the main league competition run by the organisat ...

for unsportsmanlike conduct of fans during the game. From 2020, following an agreement reached with the Stade Toulousain, owner of the facilities, the rugby league club Toulouse Olympique also plays its home matches there. On 12 February 2022, The Stadium played host to Toulouse Olympique's first ever game in Super League against

Huddersfield Giants Huddersfield Giants are an English professional rugby league club from Huddersfield, West Yorkshire, the birthplace of rugby league, who play in the Super League competition. They play their home games at the John Smiths Stadium which is sha ...

, the Giants winning 42-12 in front of a crowd of 5,238.

References

External links

Stade Ernest-Wallon
at Stade Toulousain {{DEFAULTSORT:Ernest-Wallon, Stade 1983 establishments in France Football venues in France Multi-purpose stadiums in France Rugby league stadiums in France Rugby union stadiums in France Rugby World Cup stadiums Sports venues in Toulouse Stade Ernest-Wallon Stade Ernest-Wallon Stade Ernest-Wallon