{"id":294339,"date":"2023-10-20T08:25:07","date_gmt":"2023-10-20T08:25:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/tellmysport.com\/?p=294339"},"modified":"2023-10-20T08:25:07","modified_gmt":"2023-10-20T08:25:07","slug":"lagony-france-in-despair-after-world-cup-exit-but-paris-party-can-reignite-rugby","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tellmysport.com\/rugby-union\/lagony-france-in-despair-after-world-cup-exit-but-paris-party-can-reignite-rugby\/","title":{"rendered":"L\u2019agony! France in despair after World Cup exit \u2013 but Paris party can reignite rugby"},"content":{"rendered":"
The World Cup may lose the passion and vibrancy of France fans after Les Bleus\u2019 exit<\/p>\n
E<\/span>ven the skies are sorrowful. On Wednesday morning the heavens opened, the pitter patter on Paris pavements a strange, solemn sound after a month-and-a-half in which this Rugby World Cup had basked in sunshine. As the two semi-finals move closer, the forecast grows grimmer \u2013 after France\u2019s exit at the hands of the Springboks on Sunday, the clouds and a rugby nation weep.<\/p>\n
Welcome to a Paris party to which the hosts are no longer invited. After a thrilling quarter-final weekend, one that it would not be an overstatement to describe as this ailing sport\u2019s greatest ever, the World Cup woke up on Monday morning confronting a future without the home side, the tournament\u2019s final fortnight stripped of the partisan popularity that could have brought that extra va-va-voom. <\/p>\n
At a brasserie on Tuesday evening, our group asked a canoodling couple if we might sit at the table next to them? \u201cYes,\u201d came the reply, muttered over a consolatory carafe of vin rouge<\/em>. \u201cAs long as you\u2019re not South African.\u201d<\/p>\n