Fast tango in Paris as fans roll with punches
HE walked out of the Rugby World Cup store, clenched his fists and bellowed. ‘Go Bokke!’ yelled the South Africa fan, a middle-aged man of enormous physical dimensions.
His large group of companions greeted the roar with laughter. It was shortly after 10am yesterday, not far from the most famous sights of Paris, and with almost 11 hours to kick-off.
This chap was in danger of peaking too soon.
Maybe it was an emotional reaction to what he had just experienced. The official tournament shop could barely keep merchandise on the shelves within minutes of opening. Fans of Ireland and South Africa queued with arms full of expensive gear.
It was a long day to 9pm in the Stade de France, and shelling out eye-watering prices was one way of passing it. A five-minute walk from the temporary structure housing the World Cup store was the Louvre, and many fans milled around there, too.
What was notable was the number of Springbok jerseys. A large Irish attendance at the match was predicted from a long way out, but we underestimated the extent of South African support.
With over half a million of them in the UK, it was a short hop to see their heroes defend their crown.
Queues for the Louvre were long and formed early, and made for quite the counterpoint to what would unfold to the north of the city later that night.
A mainstay of a match day in Dublin is the sight of dozens of fans milling around the Shelbourne Hotel in the middle of the city, which is Ireland’s base on the eve of home games.
Any fan wanting to do that here would be venturing towards Iron Curtain territory, so far east of the city is the team hotel.
It’s actually close to Disneyland Paris, but accounts of the trip out there provided by colleagues stopped just short of tear-stained letters written to sweethearts back home, amid fears that they’d never see the old sod again.
A remote base suits teams, especially ahead of a match like this, but it’s a function of necessity as much as choice. Paris is one of the world’s great tourist draws, but accommodation of the sort demanded by a professional sports team and support staff, whose need extends to scores of rooms, is finite.
The Springboks are a couple of hours north of the city, in a resort where Ireland will stay when they prepare for Scotland in a fortnight’s time.
The Rugby World Cup is a big deal in the capital city, bigger than one presumed, but the stars are competing with the wider world for the best hotels.
There was unhappiness with some of the initial accommodation offers made to Ireland, as was the case with other teams, with issues around training facilities a common concern. This speaks to the specific needs of the teams, rather than Paris; there is no shortage of salubrious places to stay, but the combination of privacy, size, and a vast list of demands makes catering to the elite rugby countries a particular challenge.
The impact made by supporters in Ireland’s first two weeks at the World Cup appears to have made a significant impression on the Ireland camp, with the noise generated by the travelling support favourably compared to match-days at Aviva Stadium.
But they might be grateful to be out of town this weekend. Paris can absorb millions, but eventually the green jerseys bobbed up.
Four were sat outside a chic terraced bar near Place de la Republique, all wearing tweed caps and looking like emissaries from the 1950s.
But they are just a scattering of visitors in a place that is a constant, shifting mass of natives and tourists.
Paris Saint Germain and Marseille meet in the Parc des Princes tonight in Le Classique.
King Charles was in town earlier in the week.
And then there are the usual tens
It is a vast place where getting lost is easy to the point of irresistible
of thousands of tourists, like the northern European pair looking pleasantly bemused as Ireland fans milled around them at Charles de Gaulle airport late on Thursday night.
It is, as anyone who has travelled through it knows, a vast place where getting lost is easy to the point of irresistible.
And when the Irish arrivals finally located the train station, the rush for seats to Paris rivalled the Springbok blitz defence.
Their needs were simple and clear, and swallowed up by a city already teeming with stories.