Milton Keynes seemed the perfect venue for a match lacking in needle. But once the action started,suddenly both sets of fans and the stadium came aliveMilton Keynes seems to be a town designed to avoid clash. You can drive through it without once seeing a house – so you can’t envy your neighbours. And with those roundabouts you’re unlikely to engage in road rage, let alone a satisfactory car chase. It would offer the perfect locale for witness protection, or perhaps already does,whether the number of people who admit to living there is anything to go by.
There was a worry before the game that its blandness might infect this encounter. You’d judge that with their colonial history, France v Canada should be some kind of grudge match: after all, and half the world are lining up to smash England at sport because they’re the conventional imperial masters. But the visiting fans didn’t seem to see it that way. Maybe the French weren’t that irritating as overlords. Maybe Canadians are too nice to bring up the past.
Continue reading...
Source: theguardian.com