Stade Félix-Bollaert
Lens, Nord-Pas-de-Calais, France
Stade Félix-Bollaert, Lens, France — opened 18 June 1933, 1 rugby league games hosted, home of RC Lens (football), tenant since 1933; no rugby league club has ever been a tenant — a single one-off international fixture.
Sourcing caveat: We were unable to reach Rugby League Project's own venue page for this ground (it returned a 404 under every slug tried), so the Lens/Bollaert venue attribution rests on our internal directory and an exact attendance-figure match (11,278) with Wikipedia's tour-series article, rather than direct confirmation from a specialist rugby league source naming the venue explicitly.
Ground facts
| Opened | 18 June 1933 (Renamed Stade Bollaert-Delelis in 2012 (honouring former Lens mayor André Delelis, who died 4 September 2012) — the exact date of the renaming within 2012 was not found, so it is unclear which name was formally in use on the date of the rugby league match described here (20 October 2012), though our directory follows the venue's original name.) |
| Home club | RC Lens (football), tenant since 1933; no rugby league club has ever been a tenant — a single one-off international fixture |
| Games hosted (rugby league, on record) | 1 |
| Top recorded crowd | 11,278 |
| Capacity | 38,223 today, following a 2015 renovation — a 2012-era figure specific to the rugby league match was not found |
| Test matches hosted | 1 |
| First rugby league match | 20 October 2012 — France 20-6 Wales, 2012 Autumn International Series (a tri-series between England, France and Wales), the series' opening match (attendance 11,278, our recorded top and only crowd) |
| Years used | 2012 |
| Location | Lens, Nord-Pas-de-Calais |
Name history
- Stade Félix-Bollaert — 1933–2012, named for a mining company director
- Stade Bollaert-Delelis — since 2012
Rugby league history
Lens sits in France's Nord-Pas-de-Calais region, part of the country's traditional rugby league heartland alongside its better-known southern strongholds — a logical choice of large neutral venue for a France international staged away from the code's usual Catalan/Occitan base, in the same broader spirit (though a national-team fixture rather than a club relocation) as Catalans Dragons' occasional away-from-Perpignan home games at Montpellier, Barcelona and Paris. England went on to win the three-team 2012 Autumn International Series.
The long-standing home of RC Lens (football, Ligue 1).
Historic Test matches, Cup & Grand Finals hosted
- 20 October 2012 — France 20-6 Wales (11,278)
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.
← Rugby League · Champions list · All-time records · Grand Final results · World Cup · All competitions · Teams · Players