Pappus' plane

It's France-Galles tonight. I would usually watch it, but I am getting up at 4am tomorrow to catch the 5h04 to Paris (and from there to Metz), and to make this easier I got up at 5 this morning, and so now I am tired and by kick-off I'll be ready for bed.

I'll be back online either Sunday or Monday.

Outside the stadium I bought myself a baguette with a sausage in it, and a Nazi drink. Then I went inside.

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Paris. Louvre. Rugby. Stade de France. Trying to find the appropriate entrance and making my way to bloc S6, rang 9, place 29. According to the website, that means I'm on the western side, nine rows back from the fence, near the north-west cornerpost.

I've never been to a union game before, and I imagine that I won't have the faintest idea of what the referee's doing or why.

Six Nations games usually get crowds of 75000+ (stadium capacity of 80000), half as many again as the big Lang Park crowds. It will be interesting to compare the two stadiums.

Vaguely related story from the other day: France played Argentina in a soccer friendly in Marseille^*. After the two anthems, the commentator noted, "La Marseillaise parfaitement respectée." Not all is well in a country when people notice the absence of booing or whistling during the home team's anthem. This happens in football matches against the North African sides.


^* Or, to take the slant of all the news coverage: Diego Maradona was in Marseille this week.

There's a Bledisloe Cup game on at the moment in Hong Kong. I am unable to make myself care about it too much - the Bledisloe has already been decided, and it seems to cheapen the trophy somewhat to have it potentially decided in money-spinning matches in Hong Kong.

Also, Channel 7's commentary was out of sync with the video. I don't understand a) how that would happen in the first place, and b) why someone wouldn't notice and fix it. I'm sure they're capable of putting the audio on a short delay so that it matches with the pictures. The illusion that the commentators are just really good at reading the play doesn't last very long.

For the rest of my life, I may well hate Spanish climbers who time trial brilliantly in the second-last stage of the Tour de France. Two years in a row.

It wasn't just Sastre over-performing, Evans under-performed. Christian Vande Velde's good, but he's not a minute faster than Evans. Vande Velde will be ruing his crash on the descent of the Bonnette-Restefond, where he lost about two minutes. Had it not been for that he may well be on the podium.

Vande Velde is my new favourite non-Australian cyclist. Any former teammate of Armstrong's who casts aspersions about the cleanliness of that team gets a tick from me. CVV's probable dope-free-ness (analysis) gives us more confidence that top riders were clean this year. There's probably still doping going on, but if no-one's getting far away from the American then it's a big improvement.

Anyway. Evans second again. The balance of sporting results on a night when the Wallabies thumped the All Blacks should not be depressing, but there it is.