Great rugby venue, pity about the clock

By WYNNE GRAY

PARIS - Stade de France, the magnificent sporting stadium in the northern suburbs of Paris, may be the best rugby arena in the world.

It would be in a close tussle with the Millennium Stadium in Cardiff in offering superb facilities and viewing for the 78,000 crowd which arrived for the late-evening start to the Armistice Day test between the All Blacks and France.

But one vital ingredient is missing - a clock.

There are huge video replay screens, a massive digital scoreboard, an eye-in-the-sky camera suspended on wires which keeps whizzing backwards and forwards to cover play, trains nearly to the doorstep, any number of food and drink options, music, the best media facilities in the world, but no clock.

At Cardiff there is a retractable roof and the crowd sits on a greater angle, while the more gradual incline in Paris' great amphitheatre gives a feeling of greater space.

Whatever the comparisons, both are well ahead of Stadium Australia for watching rugby.

There is a style about Stade de France, from the Tricolor markings on the top of the goalposts to the brass bands which offer pre-match entertainment.

The All Blacks were first out on to the park yesterday, surging out of the tunnel. The French simply walked out.

After all, they had been out on the turf 20 minutes before, going through a variety of lineout, ruck and maul drills, and feeding off the frenzied crowd.

Rugby here is very different. It is a sport which wants to interact with the public, like captain Fabien Pelous who stops at halftime to give a quick television interview.

Trains are full of people singing on their way to the ground, pavements are crowded with joyous anticipation, far better than the loutish behaviour of young, gloating New Zealanders after the match.

There was a moment's silence for former Prime Minister and test wing Jacques Chaban Delmas, who died aged 83 on the eve of the international. Then came the anthems, the haka and the match.

The 8.45 pm kickoff - we presume it was that because there was no clock - is aimed at prime-time television audiences.

It is okay for those in their lounges in Europe, but means teams and spectators do not get back to central Paris until after midnight.

Ascending to the Champs Elysees from the underground on the Metro, the huge thoroughfare is full of people.

Unlike the solemn morning's remembrance ceremony at the nearby Arc de Triomphe, the shops, bars and sidewalks are humming with life. It is some city, with a heck of a sports stadium to match.

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