A queue that stretches for tens of meters, long before the hour, in front of the gates of Marcoussis. Regulars, families, grandfathers who enjoy themselves as much as their grandchildren, and even a rugby school bus that will make a hell of a racket thanks to the mini-vuvuzelas distributed by the Fed. Wednesday, February 23, the second training of the XV of France open to the crowd since the start of the pandemic illustrated what we have been guessing for several months: an absolute bromance between the Blues and their supporters, the youngest like the oldest. , unleashed on each acceleration of Antoine Dupont.
The idol of French rugby, in verve in his races despite an exhausting high-intensity session for the organisms, even took the microphone to give a little love to the 1,400 spectators who filled the field of honor: “We are delighted to have you here, there has rarely been as much atmosphere as today. We really experience incredible emotions on home games in particular, and we hope to experience more with you.
The arrival of the bus in Murrayfield in 2020, a painful memory
A visible and noisy support, a palpable expectation, tenfold, after twelve years of chasing this damn Grand Slam, which the Blues did not know how to tame right away. Since we will have to send the Scots home on Saturday, remember the trip two years ago. The Blues then come out of two magnificent victories against English and Welsh, two triumphs which have plunged all the lovers rejected by the XV of France.
As the Covid crawls and the world prepares to freeze in place, 10,000 Blues fans are heading to Edinburgh, including several hundred who are waiting for the arrival of the French team bus outside the gates of Murrayfield . Immobilized, Galthié and his men took long minutes to advance, then to descend, when a vibrant Marseillaise descended from the sky. A welcome that “takes the heart”, as Captain Charles Ollivon nicely said, who will take off his headphones to enjoy it, like many of his friends. But a reception badly managed emotionally, will regret for its part the tricolor staffafter a foul-mouthed and badly finished match.
“We managed to anticipate everything, the Stade de France, Cardiff… But the madness around the team in Edinburgh, the bus for a quarter of an hour in the middle of the delirious crowd, with the bagpipes, the Marseillaise, that no, we did not explain them well, ”admits Galthié afterwards. Two years later, the players do not all tell the same story, as often. Baptise Serin, joined by us, for example brings up the shock a little earlier.
“The Aftermath of Wales [le match précédent], when we win there, the number of people waiting for us at the airport and in Cardiff airport, I had never seen that. There was a guard of honour, the Marseillaise… I had never experienced that with the EDF and it was quite incredible”.
Gaël Fickou, the current tricolor captain, nevertheless concedes that he was “a little surprised by the arrival at Murrayfield. I remember, even before entering the stadium, they had slowed us down in the procession, with their songs, Maybe we were a little young? “. “It’s true that it was an impressive moment, which brings an extra dose of excitement, adds Willemse, also present at the time. The key is to keep it and use it at the right time to find the right energy. We have players who have more experience than two years ago, we have made a lot of progress in our path. It won’t be a surprise like the first time.”
The Blues have gained experience
This match in Scotland remains “the only failure of this generation”, judge Marc Liévremont in the Midol of the week. The former coach warns: “This failure had cost the tournament. However, today, this team arouses immense expectations on the part of an entire country. Never has a French team seemed so strong, so constant. It will be the role of the staff to be able to take the necessary precautions. To prevent, to be careful. »
If we assume that the journey between the hotel and Murrayfield will be settled like clockwork this time, the tricolor group can no longer worry about the emotional charge of a Marseillaise a cappella at the entrance to a stadium, even though said stadium smells of pure malt whiskey and solid old Scotch oak like a big guy from the Chardon pack. Or else it would have liquefied in Saint-Denis, in November, when the orchestra was silent to let 80,000 spectators bellow the national anthem without music before kick-off.
We were there, as if we were facing Ireland, and we could feel in each clamor that rose all at once the hope, the impatience, and the fear of seeing this. Do not believe that it’s just decorum to embellish the perfume of conquest, two years from a World Cup at home which can just as much sublimate as diminish, the group of 2007 remembers. “Since the 2019 World Cup, where we showed another face, there is a wave of supporters who are surfing on that, rejoices Serin. This is ultra-positive for EDF. For the players, and for having experienced it, it’s incredible to have support like that. We feel that we share emotions with the supporters, it’s very important. »
This trance between the XV of France and its supporters, the opponents come back marked, when they come back. Read the all-black opener Beauden Barrett in The Team recently.
“As I wasn’t playing, I felt the whole atmosphere of the stadium and the French public in a slowed down time. The public’s interactions with Les Bleus were insanely intense every time the French scored. In stark contrast, I remember a female voice, almost inaudible, announcing our penalties. I don’t think the Stade de France has an equivalent in the world. This incredible support from the spectators, we will have to deal with it. The France team is in tune with its public and I know that the coach of the Blues has a lot to do with it”.
“It’s amazing to have support like that”
The manager of the Blues sometimes makes tons of it, when he suspends the audience to his lips, the air of thinking of higher things in his long silences, but his attachment to the “sacred”, everything that permeates the image of Blues and their perception in the opinion, is not fake. The smallest bit of string is thus used to make its players climb the curtain. The latest? The words of Irish captain James Ryanbefore the last match at the Stade de France : “I guess we will do everything we can to calm the French supporters down, if not a better word. »
Response from Galthié, who had us rehearse to better prepare its effect: “It’s something that we hear, that we hear and that we will take into account. This will be shared with the group, knowing that our objective is not to reduce the Stade de France to silence, it is to experience the most intense emotion possible with our supporters. Live the sublime, facing a sublime adversary. Appointment made, appointment honoured. Now it’s time to settle a bad memory.