Barney Spender : Rugby
As in all sports and, indeed , in life itself, a hearty welcome is often accompanied by a fond farewell. So it is on Saturday when the Springboks will attempt, for the second successive year, to win a Test series in France by a 2-0 margin. Something which will prove a remarkable achievement should they manage it.
On the bench for the first time is the dimunitive scrumhalf Dan van Zyl who, should he get on to the field, will have the privelege of playing in the “final curtain” of the Parc des Princes as a Test rugby ground.
For South Africans, last weekend’s injury to Joost van der Westhuizen, one which now looks likely to keep him out for at least six months and possibly longer, was a mini disaster. After all, it is not easy replacing the best srumhalf in the world.
But the good form of Werner Swanepoel and the bright showing of Van Zyl in Tuesday’s grim performance against France A in Toulon have given some cause for cheer.
It is especially delightful to see a player like Van Zyl close in on a Springbok cap if only for the fact that, in a professional age, he strikes a blow for the Corinthian. Yes, he is saying, you can still play cricket in summer and rugby in winter and get to the top in both.
Van Zyl has also got there the hard way. After understudying Van der Westhuizen at Northern Transvaal, he gave up rugby for a year when he opted to miss the 1995 season so that he could go to England and play cricket for Shropshire.
When he came back, he did not return to the Blue Bulls but signed instead for the unfancied Mpumalanga Pumas.
Since then he has more often than not had to work behind a beaten pack and the fact that he made it on to this tour says much, not only for his own worth but for the selectors who recognised it.
Foremost in French minds, however, will be the closing moments of the Parc, a ground which, the English apart, has come to represent a French Fort Knox. Of 50 games in the Five Nations, France have won 42.
Strangely, the English have had a knack of regularly winning: five out of 12 visits in the Five Nations have ended in victory and one was drawn. And they also came out on top in a fractious quarter-final in the 1991 World Cup.
Beyond the Five Nations the French have been less successful, winning six out of 15 Tests against the likes of New Zealand, South Africa and Australia, but, with an overall record of 48 wins in 65 games, it is easy to understand why not everyone is happy with the move to the new Stade de France.
True, it will house in the region of 80 000 spectators whis is 20 000 more than the Parc but the feeling remains that it is not a rugby ground but a soccer stadium, purpose-built for the World Cup next year.
The Parc, which took over from the Stade Colombes in 1973 as the home of French rugby, has developed a unique atmosphere, one which often borders on frenzy as the noise from the crowd, caught and amplified it seems in the overhanging lip of the roof, barrels around the ground. At the first strains of the Marseillaise, the Tricolors appear to grow in stature.
“I had grown up with people talking about Colombes but I got the impression that in Paris the French players felt they were in their own back garden,” says Andy Irvine, the former Scotland and Lions fullback.
“They seemed in some way to be protected by the Lord of the Parc and His finger of fate also seemed to accompany them against us.”
Naturally, the French are making a celebration of the event which only a Springbok win might serve to dampen. Representatives from around the world, including Irvine, have been invited to join the likes of Sella, Blanco, Rives and Paparemborde in a final toast to the old cabbage patch in St Cloude.
Gareth Edwards, Graham Mourie, Marc Ella, David Campese and Mike Gibson are among those who played there, while the South Africans are represented by Naas Botha and Morne du Plessis.
Amid the nostalgia, however, it is perhaps best to leave the last word to Jo Maso who looks at the farewell with a typically Fench shrug of the shoulders.
“The Parc was something else. There was a magic in the atmosphere, when the crowd got going it was as if you were standing in the middle of a volcano which was blowing its top. But we musn’t look back. There is the new Stade de France and that means that life will go on, it will bring something else.
“However, we will treasure some special memories from the Parc – like the way we remember the women we have loved.”
Ah, those French!