RUGBY MATTERS

Stunning: The Stade de France during the Olympics closing ceremony
PICTURE: Alamy

IT has taken decades to fall in love with the Stade de France – no coup de coeur for me – but I am now completely smitten by that remarkable stadium in Paris, the home of French rugby and so much more besides, most recently the Olympics.
For a long time, I was indifferent, indeed resentful. I pined for my ex. The Stade wasn’t my beloved Parc des Princes, that riotous bearpit of an arena, that theatre of dreams and nightmares. The train service to Saint Denis from the...