“Above all, shout even louder for those who will not be able to be present at the match! Come on Les Bleus!”. The message enunciated by the sizzling voice provoked loud applause. You know something special is going on when the pilot of the plane taking you to the promised land of Scotland motivates you over the loudspeakers of the aircraft. The tirade launched on Friday, February 25, the day before the shock of the third day of the Six Nations Tournament between France and Scotland, has confirmed a craze that we can feel climbing in recent months around the Blues.
This frenzy was confirmed once there. The French came in large numbers. Crossed a few hours before the meeting on Saturday, Julien and his companions, Maxime, Alexandre, Sébastien and Lucas made the trip from the Hautes-Pyrénées. “It is the homeland of Antoine Dupont”they like to recall with a big collective smile.
“It was an opportunity. It’s the first time we’ve traveled. We decided on a whim. We had been deprived of this kind of meeting for two years, we had to mark the occasion .”
Julien, French supporter at Murrayfieldat franceinfo: sport
Others like Jeanine and Didier landed from Pau. Accustomed to travel, they arrived ten days ago in Edinburgh. “We took advantage of the hinterland in a motorhome. It’s crazy how the French have been everywhere for a few days”says Didier.
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the “incredible support from spectators” French, had already marked the New Zealand opener Beauden Barrett during the defeat of the All Blacks in November. This love rating obviously does not escape the main concerned. In addition to the tricolor captain, Antoine Dupont, who confided in particular on the subject during a long interview for franceinfo: sport, the bosses of the XV of France, Fabien Galthié and Raphaël Ibanez, have never ceased to put it forward after the matches. The stands full of Marcoussis in training this week only accentuated this impression.
End of training under the ovation of the 1200 supporters pic.twitter.com/d8uXGwdfOE
— Fanny Lechevestrier (@fannylechevestr) February 23, 2022
While all the lights are green on the French side, there was no reason for the dynamic to stop. It would have been difficult to imagine the supporters of the Blues missing such an appointment in the lair as oppressive as bubbling Murrayfield. Nevertheless, to see and hear them arrive more than 24 hours before the meeting, and in such large numbers outside, “it’s something”to use the words of Antoine Dupont, in a press conference, before the match.
“This support, we felt it as soon as we landed. In the airport, we met a lot of French supporters, but also when we arrived and when we left the hotel. We hear them making noise.”
Antoine Dupont, captain of the XV of Franceat a press conference on the eve of the match against Scotland
A band of tricolors settled for a long time under the windows of the Blues before drowning their wait in local drinks. This was a small glimpse of the French diaspora already present in the capital. A good part of the 8,000 to 10,000 spectators expected was already well recognizable, with individuals standing out with a beret screwed on the head, a scarf around the neck, a jersey flanked by the rooster on the shoulders… or all three.
It’s very simple, it was impossible to go more than 20 meters without crossing a Frenchman. Barely the paws placed near the nerve center of the city that the language of Molière was already heard everywhere. Visually, impossible to forget the appointment of the weekend. The French and Scottish flags, erected at the entrance of the hotel where the Blues were staying, in front of the jersey and souvenir shops or the pubs, sounded like the incessant reminder of a long-awaited meeting.
The impatience and the ambient excitement went up a notch again on Saturday morning. The first flags appeared at the stadium at 10 a.m. The atmosphere quickly warmed up despite the gusts of icy wind that swept through the enclosure and its surroundings. While the scents of grilled sausages, among other dishes, tickled the nostrils, the French supporters flocked, mixing in a good-natured atmosphere, with the locals. The blue wave accompanied the arrival of the bus around 12:15 p.m.
That’s it the bus from #XVdeFrance arrived ! @franceinfo #ECOFRA pic.twitter.com/t5Qx9NMGdY
— Justine Saint-Sevin (@JustineStSevin) February 26, 2022
Clever, the tricolor supporters even stayed on the spot to welcome the arrival of Finn Russell and his teammates a few minutes later with hearty “Allez les Bleus”. We won’t go so far as to say that this detail tipped the scales, but it certainly added salt and confidence to the French ranks.
Between the welcome, the vibrant Marseillaise at the time of the hymns sung by the supporters, and the many songs which crushed those of the locals (before they died out completely), the Blues had a plethora of energy to draw on to build up pressure and do the round back in difficult times.
“Between the welcome at the exit of the bus and the atmosphere at Murrayfield, at times it felt like being at the Stade de France.”
Antoine Dupontat the microphone of France 2 after the meeting
Antoine Dupont’s teammates did not fail to thank them at length with a slow lap of honor after the victory. The atmosphere was such, the cries so fervent, that many supporters left their voices in the stands of Murrayfield. It was necessary to help the XV of France to erase an eight-year scarcity in the Scottish cocoon.