Ready to host Olympics, Rugby World Cup in France: Sports minister

French Sports Minister Laura Flessel said on Monday (September 25) that the country would welcome the chance to host the 2023 Rugby World Cup.

Having recently won the right to host the 2024 Olympic Games, Flessel said that France would welcome the chance to host the Rugby World Cup a year before hand.

Flessel is in London to present France's bid for the tournament, Ireland and South Africa are the other two countries hoping to win the right to host the event.

Asked about her comments last week when she said that France's Winter Olympics team will not travel to the 2018 Games in South Korea if its security cannot be guaranteed, Flessel said that security was an international concern and that the country's athletes were training hard for the Games.