England V Samoa, a view from a England Fan

Before writing this post I must disclose that I live in France, love the country and people and am married to a French woman and my kids are by the result, half French/half English.

So, moving on, I drove to Nantes on Saturday to watch the England V Samoa world cup rugby match. It was a hugely significant fixture for us English, firstly because we are the current Champions and secondly because we had to win otherwise we would be out.

The stadium at Nantes is small, seats around 37,000. When the national anthems were played, the stadium rocked with "God save the Queen" and was silent during the Samoan anthem, out of respect and the fact they probably had 100 supporters in the stadium. As soon as the game started, the atmosphere was absolutely electric, "Swing Low" could be heard throughout the stadium. England scored early and everything seemed great. Then Jonny Stepped up to take his first conversion kick..

The crowd, a huge number, started to boo. The fans surrounding me wearing English shirts, looked at one and other stunned, surely the English haven't turned against our World Cup hero. Then the blue beret's came out, the seemingly "English" fans around us were French, not only that, some were even wearing England shirts. This abuse continued through-out the game, every time the Samoans pushed forward the stadium would chant "Allez les Bleus". The French in the stand appeared to outnumber the English, certainly their voices anyway.

Tempers were rising within the stand, the English were clearly annoyed with the torrent of boo's and "allez". One young guy stood up and shouted "Don't cry for me Argentina", the crowd just stared at him blankly. Another guy was asking a large group of "suits" whether they would be angry if their team was constantly booed, again, blank faces..

I have been to many International rugby matches and have never seen this before, the atmosphere was ruined, killed by those chanting and booing. Normally, you would expect banter within the crowd, as the week before at South Africa, very light hearted and plenty of joking around. Many people had traveled for over 16 hours to get there, costing €105 for the ticket alone plus the associated travel costs on top of that. Those sat next to me were shocked and annoyed that they were unable to enjoy the atmosphere.

Why did they do it? I am still at a loss, ultimately, it was probably the only chance many of the locals would have of watching a World cup game, should they have done it? No, absolutely not, would you? Maybe I am just being too sensitive.

Below is a clip from my camera giving an idea of the noise surrounding us.

Top Tips when going to Stade de France for Rugby World Cup

Firstly, before I detail my tips and experiences gained when watching the Rugby in Paris, I thought I ought to point out the following... Before you travel to Paris, be under no illusion, the beer is more expensive, the locals hate tourists and there is practically nothing written in any language other than French and finally, always have your passport in your pocket, if stopped by the Police, they will want to see it straight away. On the other hand, France is totally excited by the World Cup, has a fantastic public transport system and if you take something from my tips, you will have a great time.

The findings were all discovered on Friday 14^th September, the day England seemingly surrendered their world crown at the 2007 Rugby World Cup.

On match day, the streets of Paris are alive and buzzing with the fans of just about every Nation competing in the World Cup. Paris is known to be a city of cafe culture, you will not be disappointed, the streets are lined with tables and chairs outside, they normally are filled with smoking Parisians quaffing coffee, not during this Championship. The cafes are a mass of bright colours each one, the day I went it was mainly a sea of white and green, English and South Africans. The majority drink pints of cool lager and try to take in some of the heat from the sun, the atmosphere is electric. You will hardly hear a French voice, all English with accents from across the globe. There is zero trouble, everyone, regardless of team is talking together about the match.

Getting to the stadium is pretty easy, take the RER train directly to the Stade de France, it takes around 20 minutes from the centre of the city, very cheap and one train every few minutes. Outside the stadium you can sense a major event is about to take place, everyone is excited and on top form, people walk alongside opposing fans, chatting about who will win and why. All the way from the station at St Dennis to the Stadium the streets are filled with people selling merchandise, nasty looking kebabs and cans of beer from cool boxes. There are many bars en route and plenty of opportunity to buy tickets from touts. This walk takes around 10-15 minutes.

Arriving at the stadium you are thrust into a cauldron of noise and excitement, people singing, bands playing music, people dancing and fans of all ages from 3 to 90 years old (it seemed). There are plenty of Heineken stands and although really overpriced (7€ per pint) there are plenty drinking. Everyone is happy and there are a few bands playing tunes relevant to the fans surrounding them (although not sure about Tom Jones’ deliliah). TV crews interview people and the paparazzi will snap anybody wearing something unusual, the most popular when I was there were the two guys in South African kit wearing Nelson Mandela masks. One big tip outside, there are no big screens, do not arrive thinking you can watch a game before.

During the game and inside the stadium there are plenty of bars and food places, serving the usual fare, toilets as ever are a major problem as there aren’t enough.

After the game, all of the “beer tents” remain open, many were celebrating, many were drinking to forget. All in all, i’d summarise the atmosphere as being one big party, many fans left the ground through fear of not getting home and missing the last train, the woman I spoke to at the RER said that they run the trains until everyone is gone, I got the train at 12.30am (after shaking hands with a certain Martin Johnson outside the media zone)

Top Tips at a glance

1. Get RER train to Stade de France
2. Get there 2-3 hours before kick-off and enjoy the build up outside.
3. Have a beer after the game and miss the rush
4. If you want to watch a game before make sure you do it in a bar en route, nothing at the stadium
5. Not got a ticket? Plenty are selling on behalf of friends that couldn’t make it, you will watch the game next to them but..?
6. Go to toilet 2 mins before half finishes
7. Take the whole family without fear, no trouble and great atmosphere.
8. Instead of buying a program (€8) wait until after, loads are left under seats!