RWC Diary: 7th September 2023

It’s 7am when I touch down at CDG. Make it off the plane pretty quickly and bid adieu to Jack and Kathy, from Melbourne who I befriended on 6 hour journey from Doha. They are here to watch their 15 year old grandson play rugby and hopefully watch the Wallabies beat Wales. The immigration queue is long, but moves relatively quickly. The odd thing about being brown in France, is everyone assumes you speak French. It’s kind of great not having the immediate ‘foreigner’ reaction.

My Malian Uber driver drops me off at my mate’s flat. There is a surreal moment on the hour long drive where he introduces me to Salif Keita and I introduce him to Sunil Perera and the Gypsies. He starts shoulder bobbing on the peripherique.

Vincent guides me to my digs at Marcel Sambat and leaves me after a failed attempt at a travelcard at the station. He gives me his and other Parisians at the vending machine also roll their eyes and say ‘welcome to Paris’. Apparently, things don’t always work. I’m in a wee one bedroom flat in a pretty old building just outside of Paris. It’s pretty close to the main media centre, which is great.

I skip out in my plane clothes and head off to Roland Garros to pick up my treasured accreditation. I encounter a frustrated Justin Marshall, also waiting for his accreditation to be validated. Justin Marshall, and they’re not just welcoming him. A lady – who looked liked she was in charge – asked him his name. It was all I could do to not say “This is Justin Marshall, you really should be recognising him if you’re in charge of any media stuff”. But now I have learned to shut up more often than not.

After collecting the pass, I hotfoot it – literally running – to St. Denis. The AB’s are having their pre-match press con and I need to get there for half past noon. Unlike Colombo, where you can just hop into a car or hail a tuk, the ‘West’, in their developedness, require people to walk everywhere and take underground trains. Far less convenient than a tuk. After 20 minutes of walking I find the station and figure out the changes for Stade De France and take my 25 stop ride to the other side of town. The Metro – all undergrounds actually – I find fascinating. It’s like a zoo for people and easily the best way to absorb a city. But right now, the only thing being absorbed is heat, and the sweltering weather only gets worse in the evenings with sunset after 8pm.

Made it across the crosswalk in the blazing sun, still in my plane clothes, and settled down in the auditorium which was fortunately air conditioned. Ian Foster was available with Mark Telea and Dalton Papali’i, both making their World Cup debuts. Telea starts on the left wing and will have to mark Damien Penaud, while Papali’i will start with the number 6 on his back. Fozzie was in good form, having a laugh and cracking a few jokes. However, Eddie Jones’ quip about NZ journos being fans with keyboards does ring true sometimes. Nobody asks the really difficult questions, like why both the third row and midfield are so untested in a match of this enormity. How will ALB go with Reiko and how will Papali’i have to adjust his game as the AB’s pick to open sides for the firsts time in a long time. It looks as though NZ want to really play fast and open, but that would mean that Damian McKenzie should be on the bench at least, which he’s not.

I can see the thinking though. With Havili who can cover 15 and Barrett who can cover 12 the All Blacks staff feel they’ve got the best combination with Fainga’anuku able to come on and be the bruiser in the last few minutes. Look for them to start at pace and then grind the game down if they get into a lead. It’ll be an interesting tactical move with France missing five starters as well.

Finally made contact with a human on the media team and managed to get my match ticket confirmed. The upshot is that I’ll actually be at the game this evening, which is huge. Will be thinking of my entire rugby family while soaking in the atmoshpere.

Eddie Jones was the next act and he tried to justify why he hasn’t picked Andrew Kellaway for the Georgia game. I don’t understand it. Kellaway is his best back by far and he insists on not picking him and is picking Donalson at full back instead. Perhaps he’s banking on Georgia conceding some scrum penalties and having some on field cover in case Carter Gordon has an off day. It feels like a negative move to me, especially given how much they are talking about playing what’s in front of them.

Interesting to note that even at the Wallabies’ level the coaches and players are having the same problem. Too much structure. We’ve been talking about it in Sri Lanka’s schools rugby and it looks like the overcoaching of players has resulted in them not being able to make spontaneous decisions. This should be an interesting RWC in that sense, as we get to see where the game is going. All well and good for the teams to be evenly matched, but if everyone is playing robotic rugby, where’s it all going to end up.

Excited for the start. Sure everyone’s made plans to watch the late kick off in Colombo tonight. Glad that both satellite and terrestrial TV are showing it. Hopefully, sponsors will back the excitement that has surrounded the tournament now that it’s properly here.

Ponga Ra, everyone. Back tomorrow.