Rugby World Cup organisers officially make a call on ‘utterly butchered’ anthems

Jared Wright
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France's during the French national anthem during the Rugby World Cup Pool A match between France and New Zealand in Saint-Denis, north of Paris, Friday

France's during the French national anthem during the Rugby World Cup Pool A match between France and New Zealand.

Rugby World Cup officials have confirmed that the highly criticised versions of the national anthems will be binned for the rest of the tournament.

This comes after widespread backlash of the versions played for the tournament’s opening round in France.

French officials decided before the World Cup to commission school choirs to sing their own versions of national anthems at the tournament. Various choirs made up of kids from diverse backgrounds recorded the national anthems.

Backlash

The opening game between France and New Zealand saw a live rendition performed pitch side by a youth choir, which drew criticism. That theme remained for the rest of the weekend as pre-recorded anthems were played through the stadium speakers, leaving fans disappointed.

“PLEASE no more weak pathetic choral anthems! #RWC2023 Utterly butchered today, too,” a Japanese rugby fan posted on X, formerly Twitter.

Former Ireland full-back Rob Kearney joined the outcry, posting: “For the love of god give everyone back their national anthems – it’s killing that 5min pre game buzz!!”

His former teammate, Brian O’Driscoll, joined the criticism.

“The anthems have been terrible!” he said on the Off The Ball podcast.

“The two big anthems if we are honest are La Marseillaise and the Italian national anthem.

“Both of them feel like they’ve been butchered! There is no opportunity for everyone to get in behind it.”

Changes for the rest of the tournament

Reports on Monday suggested that unions will be allowed to decide between the classic version of their anthem played at the World Cup or a new version sung by the same children’s choir.

On Wednesday, France 2023 chairman Jacques Rivoal and France 2023 CEO Julien Collette confirmed that there will be new versions of the national anthems before the next round of the World Cup matches.

The chairman said they would be “closer to expectations” and would be presented to teams for feedback.

The youth choirs will also sing these reworked versions.

“Feedback from the unions we consulted was positive,” said Collette.

“This retains the voices of the children. Children will be present in the stadium. All the unions choose the recorded version in conjunction with the fans and teams. We believe it is very important that the children and their supervisors receive a very warm welcome in the stadiums.”

He added: “The anthems were tested, and each version signed off in advance by the unions.

“The effect of the chorus, combined with 80,000 fans in the Stade de France on Friday, created a bit of confusion in the experience, so that led to us taking the decision to use a version more in sync with the fans, without having the effect of juxtaposing the voices.”

Springboks captain Siya Kolisi was not bothered by the rendition of the South African anthem in their own game.

“We barely hear anyway as we sing so loud; our voices are horrible, but that’s what we hear,” he said after the win over Scotland.

“All I am thinking about when I’m signing the anthem is what’s the next job, what have I got to do. We got the energy we needed from the anthem.”

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