Paris was awash with England and South Africa rugby fans on Saturday as the two teams prepared to face off in a mouth-watering world cup final.
Most England fans were arriving at the Gare du Nord rail station by Eurostar trains and the bars and cafes around the terminus were awash with white England shirts with a few green-clad Springboks fans mixed in.
Up to 60,000 England supporters were expected in the French capital, many of them ticketless for the match which was to kick off at 1900 GMT at the 80,000-capacity Stade de France stadium in the northern suburb of St Denis.
There was good news for fans from both teams as state-run rail operator SNCF said that it would guarantee train travel to the stadium, which nine years ago hosted the football World Cup final, despite hangover disruption from Thursday's nationwide transport strike.
In corners of the train station, bundles of 50-euro notes (about 70 dollars) were seen changing hands as fans bought black-market tickets, including from disappointed French supporters who had seen their own side trounced by Argentina in the match for third place the evening before.
Parked outside the front of the station, a red double-decker bus hired by Britain's The Sun tabloid newspaper served as an editorial office for its team of journalists. "We'll be playing 'Rule Britannia' down the Champs-Elysees," joked the driver.
In parts of central Paris, such was the England fans' presence that many cafes were a sea of white shirts and English voices outweighed the French.
There was a smaller South African contingent among the arrivals from London.
"We've a great team. They play really well together. We always expected we'd be in the final. That's why we bought our tickets a long time ago," said fan Colin Prinsloo, 43.
Before the tournament started, many had predicted a north-south showdown in the final but the contestants were expected to be hosts France against the top-ranking side in the world New Zealand, rather than England against South Africa.
But the All Blacks lost in a stunning upset to France in Cardiff two weeks ago and have long since gone home. Last week French hearts were broken by England's hardened veterans.
There was more grief for the ill-fated French World Cup campaign late Friday as they were humiliated 34-10 by Argentina in the playoff for third place at the Parc des Prince stadium in Paris.
"A Pathetic End," headlined sports daily L'Equipe. "Nightmare Finish."
Turning to Saturday night's final, L'Equipe agreed that the South Africans, who beat England 36-0 earlier in the tournament, were hot favourites to win the World Cup for the second time.
But the paper warned that England had already upset the odds against Australia and France and that with Jonny Wilkinson at the helm they had a potential match winner.
The flyhalf revealed in his newspaper column that he had learnt to cope with adversity from studying the doctrines of Buddhism.
"Don't get me wrong. Don't think: 'Jonny's now a Buddhist.' I am not. I have just been finding a direction, learning different ways of looking at life and taking bits I could use and discarding bits I could not," he wrote.
Meanwhile, rugby-mad South Africans unable to make it to France hunkered down to watch the match in style at their homes with biltong -- or sticks of traditional dried meat -- brais (barbeques), beer and Boks shirts.
Even wedding plans were being redrawn and the country's main city of Johannesburg wore a festive look with green and gold -- the Springbok colours -- flaunted everywhere.
Some die-hard fans have broken the bank to get to the match, with the highest bidder on a rugby ticket on e-bay at 13,000 dollars (9,114 euros).
