Chance in 80,000 for Rugby World Cup jersey swappers

Neil Bishop, Daniel Lebeau and Brigitte Batteux. Photo / Duncan Brown

When French rugby fan Daniel Lebeau swapped jerseys with one of the other 80,282 people who watched England knock his team out of the Rugby World Cup at the Stade de France in 2007 it never entered his mind that he would see it again.

But the unthinkable happened a few hours before Sunday's match between Canada and France in Napier when Mr Lebeau spotted the jersey in a bar at the Masonic Hotel.

It was being worn by hitherto mystery second party and former Hawkes Bay Magpies fullback Neil Bishop.

"He was standing there and he said, 'Ah, my friend. I swapped jerseys with you in France four years ago,"' Mr Bishop said.

"I thought he was having me on."

With Mr Bishop on Sunday was a rugby touring mate who was also in Paris in 2007.

He recognised the visitor as the French fan from whom Mr Bishop obtained the French jersey, in exchange for his Williment World Travel cup tour sweater.

It was such a fleeting moment. They didn't even know each other's names, or where each other was from.

Mr Lebeau, from Cauvigny on the outskirts of Paris and in New Zealand for five weeks with girlfriend Brigitte Batteux, said when he arrived in New Zealand he thought about that meeting. "But I did not know his address," he said.

Asked yesterday if it was the jersey that stood out, in a bar with lots of people wearing French colours, Mr Lebeau said: "Non. Non. It was him."

Like many French fans, he has been unable to get a ticket for Saturday's sell-out likely Pool A decider in which the All Blacks will be seeking revenge for their elimination by France in the 2007 quarter-final in Cardiff.

And yesterday, as the reunion with Mr Bishop spawned an afternoon around Hawkes Bay wineries, Mr Lebeau was contemplating the tournament's future for his team.

"The beginning was not very good for France.

"But I said to a New Zealander near me at the game, 'Next week ... Wait and see'."