Think of French rugby and what springs instantly to mind? With apologies to Antoine Dupont and friends, it is still the epic pre-match lunch some of us chanced upon in Bordeaux a couple of decades ago. The pièce de résistance was the arrival of 80 huge platters of oysters, carried triumphantly in to a jazz band serenade as hundreds of guests stood and whirled their napkins aloft. When the mood takes them, the French “do” rugby like nowhere else on earth.
And, mon Dieu, are they up for it. If anyone was to dream up an event that, anticipation-wise, ticked every conceivable box it would unquestionably be this year’s men’s Rugby World Cup. The host nation was keen enough in 2007, when they last staged the global extravaganza, but this time even Paris’s grandest buildings already have Dupont’s image draped across them. Gallic excitement levels are off the scale from Toulon to Le Touquet.
