PARIS, 6 October - The French are invading the Welsh capital this weekend while an injured Fijian star is grappling with the lyrics of a foreign anthem and England's coach shows off his language skills.
Un croissant s'il vous plait
Croissant sales in Wales were predicted to go through the roof this weekend with the arrival of more than 20,000 French supporters for the quarter-final against the All Blacks at Cardiff on Saturday.
Air France also reported a rush on ticket sales earlier in the week as thousands lined up to book flights to be at Millennium Stadium to support Bernard Laporte's men.
A Little out of tune
Injured Fiji fly half Nicky Little was approached by some friendly Welsh women in Marseille on Friday - they had booked for this quarter-final trip believing their team would be playing South Africa - who had decided they were now going to support the Pacific islanders.
The Welsh supporters wanted to learn the Fijian anthem so they could sing it at the ground on Sunday, so Little wrote it out for them and threw in a choir lesson as well.
In return, after Little remarked that the Welsh anthem is one of his favourites, the girls wrote it out in Gaelic for him. Little was observed on Saturday in the team hotel lobby still practicing the tune.
Corny talk
England coach Brian Ashton was able to demonstrate his language skills at their pre-match press conference before their quarter-final against Australia in Marseille. When Italian state broadcaster RAI posed a question in Italian, Ashton, who was a more-than-handy scrum half for Roma and Milan, was only too happy to respond in the language of La Bel Paese.
Obviously feeling a little shown up next to his boss, captain Phil Vickery offered to answer the next question in Cornish. Unsurprisingly, there were no takers.
Number of the day
5 - Times Australia and England have met at an IRB Rugby World Cup. For the record, England lead 3-2 after their 12-10 win in the quarter-final on Saturday.
Quotes of the day
"(We arrive at the stadium) and then it's business as usual. From there it's iPods in and straight to the change room. Have a talk, then a bit more iPod. Then they (his team-mates) start frothing at the mouth."
- South Africa captain John Smit on how crucial musical accompaniment will be for his team as they psyche up for the Fiji match.
"For now I'm calm. We don't need to play the match beforehand. When I've done that in the past it has ended up badly. Usually I stay in bed all day."
- Argentina flanker Juan Martin Fernandez Lobbe on his plans for a relaxed lead-up to Sunday's quarter-final against Scotland.
RNS mp/mr
