From the outside it did not look anything out of the ordinary. The Maison de l’Europe, where France announced their XV for the keynote opening game of the Rugby World Cup, is a modest chalet-style building in Paris’s leafy western suburbs, not a million miles from the Champs-Élysées geographically but a world away from the city’s grander addresses. Glitz and glamour, for the time being, can wait.
Sitting up on the makeshift top table, Fabien Galthié and Antoine Dupont were also seeking to keep things relatively low-key. Galthié, sporting his trademark combo of dark suit, white trainers and heavy-rimmed specs, increasingly resembles the veteran manager of a rock band who knows he is sitting alongside a complete natural of a lead singer. When and if they plug everything in on Friday night, it could be a spectacular show.
