I'm writing this week in the brief gap between trips to Perpignan. Let's face it, none of us expected to be there for one play-off this year, let alone two, but there's no doubt that they are there on merit.
You'll probably have seen how good Catalan Dragons were last Saturday, even allowing for the fact that Warrington were pretty lame. If you aren't right on your game, their combination of forward power and great skill levels on attack will take you to the cleaners.
What might not have come over is the vibrant atmosphere at the Stade Gilbert Brutus and the level of interest in the city and beyond.
There were 70 accredited press at the match, including for the first time all the Paris dailies. The first three pages of the regional daily, the magnificently-named L'Independent, were devoted to the game on the Saturday and again on the Sunday. Making the play-offs is huge news in the South of France.
A word for the Warrington fans who managed to get there at such short notice. The official head-count was 52, but all I can say is that they put themseves around pretty effectively, because everywhere you went there were some of them. I reckon they were like extras in a Cecil B.De Mille movie, walking around in circles so there seem more of them.
I wonder if any of them had as weird a pre-match meal as mine. I ordered the Catalan menu at a pavement restaurant and the starter was rillettes of tuna - a sort of lumpy pate.
It came with a few salad leaves, a dribble of sauce... and a scoop of vanilla ice-cream. Actually, it went together pretty well. I might have it again this Saturday, before what I suspect will be a very tough evening for Wigan.
If I had to predict, it would be a Catalan win this weekend, followed by defeat by Leeds or Saints next week. But what do I know? I eat ice-cream and fish on the same plate.
Have you got a bun in the oven Dave?
Posted by: Douglas Ring-Kells | 22 September 2008 at 01:59 PM