Parc des Sports d'Avignon
Avignon, Languedoc-Roussillon, France
Parc des Sports d'Avignon, Avignon, France — opened 1975, 30 rugby league games hosted, home of AC Avignonnais/AC Avignon (football, primary long-term tenant); SO Avignon XIII (Sporting Olympique Avignonnais, rugby league) as a secondary/occasional tenant only — the club's traditional home ground is actually Stade Saint-Ruf (Stade Pierre Bazet St-Ruf), with Parc des Sports used temporarily in 2008 while Saint-Ruf was refurbished with artificial turf.
Sourcing caveat: Capacity figures conflict between sources (see above), not resolved. Floodlights not confirmed. The exact total Test-match count (14 vs 15 in different source phrasings) is not fully reconciled.
Ground facts
| Opened | 1975 |
| Home club | AC Avignonnais/AC Avignon (football, primary long-term tenant); SO Avignon XIII (Sporting Olympique Avignonnais, rugby league) as a secondary/occasional tenant only — the club's traditional home ground is actually Stade Saint-Ruf (Stade Pierre Bazet St-Ruf), with Parc des Sports used temporarily in 2008 while Saint-Ruf was refurbished with artificial turf |
| Games hosted (rugby league, on record) | 30 |
| Top recorded crowd | 17,518 |
| Capacity | Conflicting figures found: 17,518 (Wikipedia and ostadium.com) vs. 10,000 (SO Avignon's own Wikipedia article) — not resolved, possibly reflecting different eras/configurations |
| Test matches hosted | 3 |
| Surface | Grass |
| Years used | 1949–2025 |
| Location | Avignon, Languedoc-Roussillon |
Name history
- Parc des Sports d'Avignon / Plaine des Sports d'Avignon — both names used for the same venue across sources; not clear which is 'official,' not treated as a sequential rename. Renovated 2009.
Rugby league history
A significant multi-purpose stadium in Avignon used for both football and rugby league, and a recurring venue for French national rugby league Test matches over several decades — fourteen or fifteen internationals hosted in total (sources show a minor internal inconsistency between these two counts), with France's overall Test record at the venue (through 2016) recorded as 3 wins, 11 losses, 1 draw. SO Avignon XIII itself (multiple French Coupe de France titles: 1955, 1956, 1982, 1989, 2013) is more closely associated with Stade Saint-Ruf as its true home, so this venue's role is best framed as Avignon's principal representative/international rugby league venue rather than any club's permanent home ground.
Primary long-term tenant is AC Avignonnais/AC Avignon (football).
Historic Test matches, Cup & Grand Finals hosted
- 5 Dec 1982 — Australia 15-4 France, the first international rugby league Test recorded at the venue
- 1 Nov 2013 — New Zealand 48-0 France (2013 Rugby League World Cup group match, played in front of a capacity crowd)
- 1999 — Lebanon v Morocco (2000 Rugby League World Cup qualifier)
Pre-dates the site's structured match-by-match records for these competitions, so listed here as sourced facts rather than linked match pages.
Sources
Data last verified: 11 August 2026.
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