The Stade Ernest-Wallon (; ; ) is a

multi-purpose stadium A multi-purpose stadium is a type of stadium designed to be easily used for multiple types of events. While any stadium could potentially host more than one type of sport or event, this concept usually refers to a design philosophy that stres ...

located in the Sept Deniers district of

Toulouse Toulouse (, ; ; ) is a city in southern France, the Prefectures in France, prefecture of the Haute-Garonne department and of the Occitania (administrative region), Occitania region. The city is on the banks of the Garonne, River Garonne, from ...

, in southwestern

France France, officially the French Republic, is a country located primarily in Western Europe. Overseas France, Its overseas regions and territories include French Guiana in South America, Saint Pierre and Miquelon in the Atlantic Ocean#North Atlan ...

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

home ground In sports, home is the place and venue identified with a sports team. 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 sc ...

for the

rugby union Rugby union football, commonly known simply as rugby union in English-speaking countries and rugby 15/XV in non-English-speaking world, Anglophone Europe, or often just rugby, is a Contact sport#Terminology, close-contact team sport that orig ...

club

Stade Toulousain Stade Toulousain () (), 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. Toulouse is the most successfu ...

and the

rugby league Rugby league football, commonly known as rugby league in English-speaking countries and rugby 13/XIII in non-Anglophone Europe, is a contact sport, full-contact sport played by two teams of thirteen players on a rectangular Rugby league playin ...

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 clu ...

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 rugb ...

, was

expropriated Eminent domain, also known as land acquisition, compulsory purchase, resumption, resumption/compulsory acquisition, or expropriation, is the compulsory acquisition of private property for public use. It does not include the power to take and t ...

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 is a country located at the crossroads of Central Europe, Central, Eastern Europe, Eastern and Southeast Europe. It borders Ukraine to the north and east, Hungary to the west, Serbia to the southwest, Bulgaria to the south, Moldova to ...

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 (, ; ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe. Geopolitically, the island is divided between the Republic of Ireland (officially Names of the Irish state, named Irelan ...

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 Six Nations Championship, Five Na ...

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 Provinces and territories of Canada, ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, making it the world's List of coun ...

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

Japan Japan is an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean off the northeast coast of the Asia, Asian mainland, it is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan and extends from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea ...

and

Tonga Tonga, officially the Kingdom of Tonga, is an island country in Polynesia, part of Oceania. The country has 171 islands, of which 45 are inhabited. Its total surface area is about , scattered over in the southern Pacific Ocean. accordin ...

, 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) in Northern France, that opened in Augus ...

in southeastern

Lille Lille (, ; ; ; ; ) is a city in the northern part of France, within French Flanders. Positioned along the Deûle river, near France's border with Belgium, it is the capital of the Hauts-de-France Regions of France, region, the Prefectures in F ...

. 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 List of racket sports, racket sport that is played either individually against a single opponent (singles (tennis), singles) or between two teams of two players each (doubles (tennis), doubles). Each player uses a tennis racket st ...

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 letter and the fifth vowel letter of the Latin alphabet, used in the modern English alphabet and the alphabets of other western European languages and others worldwide. Its name in English is ''u'' (pronounced ) ...

Nanterre Nanterre (; ) is the prefecture of the Hauts-de-Seine department in the western suburbs of Paris, France. 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, b ...

. 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 Rugby sevens (commonly known simply as sevens, and originally seven-a-side rugby) is a variant of rugby union in which teams are made up of seven players playing seven-minute halves, instead of the usual 15 players playing 40-minute halves. R ...

competition, the Stade Ernest-Wallon became the new venue for the annual France Sevens and

France Women's Sevens The France Women's Sevens is an annual women's rugby sevens tournament, and was 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 he ...

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 country comprising mainland Australia, the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania and list of islands of Australia, numerous smaller isl ...

in November 2004, and a loss to

England England is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is located on the island of Great Britain, of which it covers about 62%, and List of islands of England, more than 100 smaller adjacent islands. It ...

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

New Zealand New Zealand () is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and List of islands of New Zealand, over 600 smaller islands. It is the List of isla ...

. The

Perpignan Perpignan (, , ; ; ) is the prefectures in France, prefecture of the Pyrénées-Orientales departments of France, department in Southern France, in the heart of the plain of Roussillon, at the foot of the Pyrenees a few kilometres from the Me ...

rugby league club

Catalans Dragons The Catalans Dragons (French language, French: ''Dragons Catalans'', Catalan language, Catalan: ''Dracs Catalans'') are a professional rugby league club from Perpignan, Pyrénées-Orientales department, France. Despite being based in France the ...

, 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. Professional clubs The following is a list of professional and semi-professional clubs in the British rugby league system: *''*capaci ...

, played a regular season

Super League Super League (also known as the Betfred Super League for sponsorship reasons, and legally Super League Europe Ltd.) is a professional rugby league competition, and the highest level of the British rugby league system, which consists of twelve t ...

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 (RFL) is the governing body for rugby league in England. Founded in 1895 as the Northern Rugby Football Union following 22 clubs resigning from the Rugby Football Union, it changed its name in 1922 to the Rugby Footb ...

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 The Huddersfield Giants are an English professional rugby league club from Huddersfield, West Yorkshire, England. Huddersfield play their home games at the John Smiths Stadium and compete in Super League, the top tier of British rugby league sy ...

, 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 Sports venues in Toulouse

Stade Ernest-Wallon The Stade Ernest-Wallon (; ; ) is a multi-purpose stadium located in the Sept Deniers district of Toulouse, in southwestern France. Described as a "temple to the oval ball", it is the home ground for the rugby union club Stade Toulousain and t ...