France is in a rugby tizzy like never before. On the back of Max Guazini's drive to commercialise Stade Francais in the capital city, this tournament could see the game's popularity escalate way beyond its normal parameters in the south.
The pictures of manic celebrations in cities around France on Saturday night, with an estimated television audience of over 16 million, were more akin to the football street partying for Zizu and co in 1998.
The squad returned to Charles de Gaulle airport on Monday to be sprayed by champagne, which made the lead item in all of Monday's television news coverage. A crowd gathered outside their Parisian hotel and even the bunting outside World Cup-themed bars seems considerably more prominent than when Paris cocked a sniff on opening night way back on September 7th. Defeat that night to Argentina has made the squad dig deeper than ever before in order to reach the semi-finals. They've had to earn their country's adoration, and they have already.
But therein lies the rub. For as the Toulouse coach, Guy Noves, reminded them on Monday morning in his column in Le Monde: "Les Bleus n'ont rien gagne." Those who ignore history are apt to repeat it - as New Zealand rugby seems hell bent on doing with the summary dismissal of Graham Henry running the risk of repeating yet another four year cycle - and Noves recalled France's epic, 43-31 semi-final win over the All Blacks in 1999.
The following Saturday they lost the final limply by 35-12 to Australia after, Noves said: "France spent the week congratulating themselves and flattering themselves. It's quite understandable, who doesn't want to fully enjoy moments following such battles?"
The Toulouse coach could also have cited the Serge Blanco-inspired semi-final win over Australia in 1987 which led to an anti-climactic dissection by the All Blacks in the final.
They were given a further salient warning in L'Equipe by former Arsenal legend Patrick Vieira. "The semi-final against Portugal was our most difficult match," he recalled of the 2006 World Cup campaign in Germany when 10-man France were beaten on penalties in the final by Italy. "Because we were still a little euphoric at having eliminated Brazil."
In all of this and more, coach Bernard Laporte, manager Joe Maso and captain Raphael Ibanez - a tower of cool reasoning throughout this whole French odyssey - struck all the right notes at their morning briefing in Marcoussis yesterday.
It assuredly helps that the post-All Blacks challenge comes in all white, ie England. "The biggest challenge of all lies ahead of us now," Ibanez re-affirmed yesterday. "I don't want the team to be distracted by Saturday's victory, even if it was beautiful. They are the world champions. We have to roll up our sleeves now."
"All the England players must have enormous belief after what they showed against Australia," added the French captain. "But we have the right to believe as well. I said after the Argentina game that we have a small chance, a small role to play. The other players and I have gone deep into ourselves, now we are in a fantastic, exciting phase, it gives us a desire to win which is outside the norm."
"England have followed the same trajectory as we have," Laporte reminded the journalists presence. "They've got themselves back together, we saw that against Australia, and we've got ourselves back together. We take them very seriously."
France had two warm-up wins in Twickenham and Marseilles but just as pertinent is the memory of England's 24-7 semi-final win over France four years ago in Sydney. "I don't care about history," Laporte retorted. "This is not the same players or the same context. We mustn't get bogged down in coincidence. We beat South Africa and Australia in consecutive matches once and that is just a coincidence. We don't care about what France may or may not have done since 1906 or whenever. Revenge? For what?"
Ten French players were receiving treatment the day after their win over the All Blacks but Maso pronounced everyone fit yesterday: "There are some battered bodies but you recover quicker following a win."
A fit again David Skrela might possibly be recalled at outhalf but while not daring to pre-empt a Laporte selection pending another rabbit out of the hat, most French journalists expect an unchanged 22 when the line-ups for Saturday's semi-final are unveiled today.
"We have to have a lot of certainty in our minds in approaching the England game," said Maso. "In 1999 we went into London, had some drinks, and left a lot of energy and motivation behind after the match; we changed our hotel, were in a hotel where the Australian fans were singing all night. Instead, we are now in the same state of mind as before the All Blacks game." It seems the message has got through.
