Laporte lambasts 'bourgeois' crowd

Annoyed by their treatment of Frederic Michalak, Bernard Laporte dared to go to war, in the aftermath of Saturday's game, with the crowd who populate the Stade de France.

"It's time to bring to Stade de France all the volunteers who work with the clubs to support the French team," he said. He would like all these "bourgeoisie du merde" who fill out the state-of-the-art 80,000-seater put out on the pitch "to see what the hell they know about rugby".

Brave, risky even, but you could hardly blame the coach for expressing views that will dominate the French media in the fallout from their victory. Maybe it's being consigned to the upper tiers of the stadium, where binoculars are compulsory more than an option, the lack of replays on the big screen, or the surprisingly minimalist facilities for the general public, not to mention the French penchant for endless queueing - but the Stade de France is not the hotbed of patriotism you'd expect.

Apparently it is filled with far too many corporate liggers. Certainly, on the concourse outside the gates, you'd have been forgiven for almost thinking Ireland were at home. A far higher percentage of the estimated 7,000 Irish supporters wore green than home supporters wore blue.

Perhaps too, sated by first their pre-match lunch and vin rouge and then the 12-point salvo inside seven minutes, the home crowd sat back and waited to be entertained. A sure sign of their giddiness was the sight of the first Mexican wave in the 13th minute - surely an unwanted world record.

At times, even in the first 50 minutes, you could almost hear a pin drop: a commentary, maybe, on the trend of the exchanges but also on the make-up of the crowd. Even La Marseillaise was fairly low-key. There was a token chant of Allez, les Bleus after the third try in the 17th minute, but not again until prompted by a rendition of The Fields reverberating around the ground fully 65 minutes into the match. The furnace of Parc des Princes in the old days? Not even related.

Joe Maso made the point, drawing a comparison with the "fantastic Irish public, who sang and cheered for their team even when they were well behind".

For his part, Michalak faced the post-match inquisition (something only a few Irish but all French players must do) with a smile on his face, and a diamond stud in his left ear.

"No, it is okay. If I make bad kicks it is normal, it is understandable why the public react like this."

Laporte did concede that France's kicking game could not stem the late Irish tide, and he singled out the threat of Gordon D'Arcy and Brian O'Driscoll.

"I'm not qualified to say why they're physically fitter than us. When we have the team we don't really do physical work, but Ireland are probably the international team, in Europe or the world, who are most like a club in that they're always together and doing training courses together."

Olivier Magne echoed the view that France wilted.

"We did not relax," he said with some irritation. "We have to improve our game against Italy, and try to dominate them more. Everybody knows we will have to improve to beat England, but we will see in one month what happens against them."