Fans hope for perfect end to French leave

IRISH rugby fans sauntered through Paris like they owned the place last night, praying that fate would help their team do the seemingly impossible and beat the French on their own turf.

Some were already limbering up to sing Ze Fields of Athenry in fake French accents as they flitted between the bars and bistros, ahead of today’s Six Nations encounter at the Stade de France.

Not all of them had tickets but those who didn’t had other seats in mind beside the big TV screens sported by O’Sullivan’s in Montmartre; Flann O’Brien’s in Rue Bailleul and Kitty O’Shea’s in Rue des Capucines, one of Paris’s oldest Irish bars, situated in the heart of the city.