Postcard from Nantes: Rugby World Cup comes to football town

The two lads huddled over one phone in the number 3 tram to Commerce are not happy.

Cue French expletive.

Uruguay have got the first try and taken the lead against Les Bleus. That wasn't in the plan.

The moods of the waiters at the venue for a late supper swing too. A knock on here, a disallowed try there, a scrum penalty against over there.

There's that expletive again.

And they hug as France get the job done. "A voila!"

This is a football town. Nantes FC are in Lique 1 but there’s buy-in for the Blues here.

Their top club side might be operating in division three but no matter.

Down in the fan zone in Toulouse, French TV later shows, the crowds are in good spirits throughout the affair. The stuttering nature of the performance fails to spoil the party and 'Allez Les Bleus' rings out at the final whistle.

All aboard.

Praise of the side step is the bronze sculpture at Place du Bouffay but it's not, as you would imagine, a tribute to Tadhg Furlong, or even Antoine Dupont, but artist Philippe Ramette's homage to the "audacity of the city, its commitment and its close relationship to culture".

The posters and billboards plastered around this city of over 300,000 on the River Loire, the sixth largest in France, bear the images of the French rugby team and other participants in the tournament, including Ireland.

Ireland fans are dotted around the city on Thursday and Friday, noticeable by their green colours and their surprise that thirsty mosquitoes are operating with impunity in a modern city centre.

Forget what you’ve heard, the real natives here are friendly to the painful pidgin French offered by the visitors and more than one have stepped out on the street to help a struggling Irishman with directions.

Andy Farrell explains his