Rugby World Cup has no plans to change national anthem arrangements

OUT OF SYNC: The France team stand for the national anthem. Pic: INPHO/Laszlo Geczo

The renditions of the national anthems on the opening weekend of the Rugby World Cup have attracted widespread criticism, but the Guardian understands organisers have no plans to change the arrangements sung by children’s choirs.

La Marseillaise at Stade de France before France’s showdown against the All Blacks, in the first match of the seven-week tournament last Friday night, was a distinctly confused affair in which the home nation’s players appeared to be badly out of sync – and even out of tune – with the schoolchildren singing along with them in the stadium in Saint-Denis.