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60,000 head to Paris for rugby cup final
Rugby fans face Paris scrum as transport strikes continue
Claire Truscott
Friday October 19, 2007
Guardian Unlimited
England rugby fans Rory Hunt and his mother Lindsay prepare to take a Eurostar train to watch England play South Africa in the Rugby World Cup final. Photograph: Toby Melville/Reuters
It has never been done before, a national rugby side winning successive World Cup tournaments.
But 60,000 English supporters are crossing the Channel this weekend in the hope and expectation that England can pull off a unique double.
All 75,000 hotel rooms in Paris are booked as England prepare to take on South Africa at the Stade de France tomorrow night.
Anyone hoping for a bed for the night may have to head for a campsite in the Bois de Boulogne, five miles west of the city.
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Impromptu bed and breakfasts are opening their doors as Parisians cash in on the foreign invasion. But some supporters plan to stay out all night and crawl on to an early-morning Eurostar on Sunday.
Eurostar is catering for 25,000 passengers between Thursday and Saturday, a 40% rise, despite a Paris-wide transport strike that is crippling the city.
Flights on budget airlines, which usually cost less than £100, are being sold for a premium.
Nearly all direct flights to Paris this weekend are sold out, with a handful of seats available for between £350 and £570.
Cheaper options are selling fast, too. Eurolines, part of National Express, is laying on an extra 18 coaches.
A total of 28 coaches will leave London Victoria coach station for the seven-hour journey to Paris.
"He hit it," wrote Sir Alex Ferguson of one particularly vicious Alan Shearer finish against Poland in 1996, "as if he wanted to kill it."
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Rugby World Cup 2007 in FRANCE, რაგბი. მსოფლიო ჩემპიონატი 2007
