Rugby World Cup Blog | Jonah Lomu | 2007

Charity from Handisport and Ireland

Sat Sep 22 01:52PM

This morning started like a lot of my days with some media interviews, speaking with the Sunday Times in Scotland and then an interview with a television channel at Le Crillon before heading off to open an event at the Champ-De-Mars.

I was invited by EDF to open Les Recontres EDF Handisport this morning, which is a two-day event held in Paris every year to celebrate sport with handicapped people. This was the fifth year it had run and this time it was in partnership with EDF who were running their own programme and who now combine with this event.

I was greeted by the president of the French Federation of Handisport, Gerard Masson and the president of the CQFD Association, Ryadh Sallem. We heard speeches from both of these men, a woman from the Mayor's office who looks after the Handisport portfolio and the EDF foundation manager before I was asked to say a few words and throw the rugby ball into the crowd to start the event.

EDF have always had a strong relationship with Handisport in France and this fits well with my own association with the Special Olympics in New Zealand. I did a few more interviews and then had the opportunity to meet some of the athletes taking place in the various sports that were being played and to meet some of the people that are involved in supporting the event.

I am always be humbled by meeting people who are handicapped – they have a wonderful attitude to life and as athletes their achievements amaze me. There were athletes there that had won gold, silver and bronze medals at world events. Ryadh, the president of the association, is a basketball player of some skill and he introduced to his very good friend Madame Parker, Tony’s Parkers mother. There is a picture of the three of us on the page today with some of the athletes.

I attended the game last night with EDF as there guest which involved meeting some of their clients and guests at the hospitality area and doing a question and answer session before heading over to Stade de France to watch the game with them. The Stade de France is such a great stadium to play in and to watch rugby in and last night there was much riding on the game for both sides.

The atmosphere in the stadium was fantastic, the noise was deafening and you could feel the anticipation from the crowd just before the kick off. When the fans each sung there national anthems it made the hairs on the back of your neck stand up. Throughout the game the fans sang their songs of support for the teams.

The friendly banter between the EDF box and the box next door, full of Irish, was great. The battle lines were drawn and both teams came out firing. For the first ten minutes the forward encounter was huge but the game was not free flowing and there were a number of handling errors by the Irish and poor decision-making. At one stage the ball was kicked back and forth like table tennis without either side finding touch and winning the aerial combat.

There were many opportunities on offer for both sides but they were not always capitalised on. The Irish team looked like they had turned up to play and at the beginning of the match it looked to be a good game. Unfortunately they lacked cohesion and were unable to string plays together to go forward. Fast balls through to the backs were few and far between due to poor service from the rucks and mauls.

When it was time for it to be played at speed for some unknown reason the ball was delivered slowly allowing the French to re-establish their line of defence and the opportunity was lost. This occurred time and time again throughout the match. The French looked as if they didn’t get out of first gear and they weren’t really troubled at set piece or on defence.

It was an impressive performance by the French to just absorb and smother the Irish attack and to capitalize on every mistake that came their way. Some great vision by Michalak to chip the ball over the Irish defence with accuracy allowing the young French winger Vincent Clerc to score.

I was impressed by him, he has a natural feel as a winger and knows where the try line is, he showed great strength to get over for his second try. His positional play and ability to know exactly where the ball is going to be placed by a kick from his own first five eight or the opposition was quite good.

To sum up the match I’d have to say it wasn’t a stellar performance or a gripping game with both sides making considerable errors throughout the match. It was the atmosphere created by the crowd that made this match fantastic.

The Irish now have to come up with a big win against Argentina in order to give them any chance of making the quarter finals. There is a huge amount of rugby on this weekend and I’m looking forward to the matches today, South Africa v Tonga, England v Samoa and the Argentina-Namibia match tonight.

LIKES: Meeting inspiring people like the Handisport athletes today at the Champs-de-mars and watching fans like the ones that attended the game last night really getting into supporting their teams with passion and pride.

DISLIKES: Not seeing teams fulfil their potential and capitalizing on opportunities.

PLAY OF THE MATCH: Vincent Clerc's try from the Michalak kick.