Letter from France: This rosbif hoping not to jump to French beat

ALL SMILES: France's Kylian Mbappe and manager Didier Deschamps during a training session at the Al Sadd Sports Club in Doha, Qatar. Pic: Peter Byrne/PA Wire

In the days since England’s win over Senegal last Sunday in Qatar, I have received several messages from French friends that are variations on a theme of “on va bouffer les beefs”.

The direct translation is ‘we’re going to eat the beef(s)’. Because France-England is looming, it extends to, “we [the French] will have you [the English] for dinner”.

I’m a ‘beef’ - an English man - in France. Usually, this is ignored. Occasionally, someone, usually a public servant of some kind, will comment generously on my petit accent. And then we move on.

But, a few times a year, whenever England face France in some sporting event such as, for example, a World Cup quarter-final, I become a rosbif - so called because, it turns out, of the traditional English habit of turning a vivid shade of sunburn pink under the hot French sun.

Once, on the day of a Six Nations match between the two sides, a barber offered to shave 'Allez Les Bleus' into the back of my head. I’ve never had a haircut at any time close to Le Crunch since.

The implication of my French friends’ messages right now are obvious. All banter bets are off until the final whistle at Al-Bayt Stadium on Saturday evening. Then, one way or the other, bragging rights will be claimed and acted on at least until Christmas. Maybe even until the Six Nations.

It’s been an odd run to this stage of the World Cup here in France. Not in football terms, though there have been shocks there, too. But in terms of how France, home of the defending champions, has reacted to this tournament.

Sure, Didier Deschamps’ oddly gurning face is on the news every single day. Players’ fitness as a topic of discussion has broken confinement and is being debated on even usually sensible news channels beyond L’Equipe or pay-TV broadcaster beIN Sports, which is showing every match live from Qatar.

Free-to-air channel TF1, which is showing a selection of matches, including all France’s games, is also going big on the tournament.

And sure, every ad break on TV includes at least one World Cup-related sales pitch. Our weekly shop features more Kylian Mbappes and Antoine Griezemanns staring out from boxes of this, that or the other. Heck, they’re even on our oldest son’s advent calendar this year. Which is strangely disconcerting.

The sports sections of the French papers, too, are filled with news and injury scares from both camps, as well as opinion pieces from the great, the good and the one-eyed on how France will inevitably win, next to a feature on who in Gareth Southgate’s squad the French should fear. Balance, see? At least the French don’t use CAPITALS in their headlines. Yet.

Meanwhile, rugby’s Champions Cup holders La Rochelle has cleverly decided to show the match on the big screen at Stade Marcel Deflandre after their match against Northampton Saints. On the flipside, Castres are far from impressed that they haven’t been allowed to move their opener against Exeter, which kicks off an hour after the match in Qatar.

But the buzz that surrounded the 2018 World Cup hasn’t really hit France this time. In part, that’s because a number of French towns and cities decided not to set up Fan Zones in protest over the treatment of immigrant workers and the number of deaths during the construction of the eight stadiums that host the World Cup. Paris, Bordeaux, Lille, Marseille, Nancy, Reims, Rodez and Strasbourg all said in October they would not set up giant screens for fans to watch matches in a party atmosphere.

It’s also partly because it’s now December - and cold - and, while there are no fan zones, there are plenty of Christmas markets all over the country.

That’s not to say no one in France is watching the World Cup. They clearly are: 14.3 million of us here - 69 percent of the viewing audience - tuned in for France’s round-of-16 win over Poland on TF1 alone.

A total 12.53 million saw the 4-1 win over Australia; 11.59 million watched the 2-1 victory over Denmark; and 8.84million tuned in for the 1-0 loss to Tunisia - though most briefly believed that match finished a draw, not realising Griezmann’s late strike had been disallowed after a lengthy VAR intervention because TF1 flicked over to ads before returning to a World Cup magazine.

TF1 did apologise on social media, and host Gregoire Margotton explained the error to viewers who stayed tuned for the post-match analysis. But millions had switched off and missed the decision. No doubt, they’ll pay closer attention Saturday.

It will take something pretty dramatic to knock the match off the top of the news schedules on Saturday - but any excitement has so far been contained.

That will undoubtedly change if France win. I expect to be offered plenty of mouchoirs to dry my tears, and to receive videos of French friends leaping around chanting: “Qui ne saute pas n’est pas Français!”.

Pray for me.