Although football remains the star attraction among French sports, rugby - in all its forms - is enjoying unprecedented success in France right now, with polling and TV viewing figures all showing increasing interest in the game. According to market researchers Kantar, 26.3 million people in France are ‘interested’ in rugby, more than a third of the total population of roughly 67 million. These figures apparently backed up by TV ratings for the men's Six Nations tournament currently being played out - the tournament comes to a climax at Stade de France on Saturday, when France take on Scotland in the final match of the series. February’s match against England - a fixture known as France as 'le crunch' - played out in front of a TV audience of 8.1 million, reaching a peak of 9.5 million, according to Médiamétrie. It was the most-watched rugby international on French TV since the 2023 Rugby World Cup, hosted in France. Then 15.4 million viewers tuned in for the opening night win over New Zealand, and 16.5 million watched France's one-point quarter-final loss against South Africa. Last November’s win over the All Blacks – the third in a row for Les Bleus – was watched by 7.3 million on World Cup broadcaster TF1. The following day, 5.14 million tuned in to watch France’s national senior football team play Italy in the Nations League. And 40 percent of those who claim an ‘interest’ in rugby say they also have an interest in the women’s game. The women’s Six Nations kicks off on March 22nd – matches involving France are on France 2, while the remaining games can be streamed through the France TV Sport website. Free-to-air TV channel TF1, meanwhile, will broadcast the Women’s Rugby World Cup in England later this year. Winning streak? In the same way that familiarity breeds contempt, according to the saying, victories breed popularity. Under Fabien Galthié, the French national men’s squad is enjoying a mostly successful period on the pitch, certainly compared to the period between 2011 and 2019. Despite an 80 percent win-rate, however, titles remain elusive. They only have one Six Nations – the 2022 Grand Slam – to their name. Expectations – and TV audiences – will be high for the finale against Scotland at a sold-out Stade de France on Saturday night. A second title will do the game no harm whatsoever. Following the success of the 2024 Paris Olympics, when the men’s team won gold, some 19.5 million people say they are interested in the sevens game, too. Current numbers are equally impressive: Between 400,000 and 1 million people tuned in to the early rounds of the world-touring HSBC SVNS series, according to FFR figures. The next round is in Hong Kong at the end of March. Domestic competition But it's not only international matches that get good numbers. The senior men’s domestic competitions, too, are enjoying a boom period. The average crowd at a Top 14 match (the top flight domestic league for rugby) after 13 of 26 rounds – based on the latest available official figures – was 15,567, a nine percent increase on the same period last season. It’s true that the game’s heartlands are in the south-west of France. The big and historic names in French rugby are almost exclusively in Occitanie and Nouvelle Aquitaine. Vannes is the first-ever side from Brittany to make it to the top table. Further north, generally speaking, football takes over. But the TV numbers are equally impressive, given that French domestic rugby is just about a pay-TV exclusive product these days, following the closure of the C8 channel. Even so, more than once this season, rugby matches on Canal Plus have out-audienced Ligue 1 games on streaming service DAZN. The 2023-2024 Top 14 final between Toulouse and Bordeaux on June 28th, 2024 – in the middle of the Euro 2024 tournament – attracted 3.3 million free-to-air viewers on France 2 and a further 950,000 viewers on Canal Plus. Another signal of its popularity, the size of TV deal. Last year, Canal Plus agreed to pay €700 million to extend exclusive TV rights in France for four years through to 2032. The truth is, however, that football remains the most popular team sport in France. Rugby is surfing something of a wave right now. The dynamic will change. The next football World Cup is in 2026 – and suddenly we’ll all be football fans for a while. And the third most popular sport? That's tennis, apparently. If you want to join the rugby revolution, France v Scotland will be screened on free TV channel France on Saturday, March 15th at 9pm