France aim to go distance
It was a predictable response from a London media somewhat caught off guard by the news in 2008 that then French president Nicolas Sarkozy had asked a British architecture firm to examine how the Parisians suburbs might be remodelled on the South London borough.
It was ironic, then, that the week just passed should have been dominated as it was from a Gallic viewpoint by the alleged moanings about the team’s base in Croydon with sour sound-bytes emanating from one member of the squad and the media. Tighthead prop Uni Atonio unwittingly set the ball rolling with his gripe about a rowdy wedding in the team hotel — described by one French newspaper as “a little dated, kitsch but comfortable” — and the predictable effect it had on his beauty sleep.
