Back in their halcyon 80s, Racing Club de Paris were racy alright, and it's now part of the club's folklore that five of their players garnished the 1987 French Championship final by cycling to Parc des Princes just before kickoff in pink bow ties which they duly played in as well.
Other stunts included drinking champagne at half-time in the 1989 final, or donning various unorthodox attire for other big games, such as Basque berets or natty Bermuda shorts. All of which encapsulated Racing's Parisian flair and style, but on a more economic level it turned into a good business opportunity as well for two of their French internationals from the time, Franck Mesnel and Eric Blanc. And as a result the Eden Park chain of clothes outlets, with the pink bow tie as symbol, was spawned.
You'd imagine that if one Irish player embodied Racing's spirit it would be Brian O'Driscoll and along with the Irish lock Malcolm O'Kelly, the two were in the Dublin premises yesterday to be fitted in their Lions blazers. Collector's items too, for there are only 50 - 37 for the players and 13 for the accompanying management.
Even so, getting fitted for blazers and casual wear is all well and good, but the attire which really sets the pulse racing, even in an advert, is of course the three striped red jersey. "Last Wednesday I wore the jersey and that was very exciting. I got goosebumps over that," said O'Driscoll.
That was for an ntl commercial along with Scott Quinnell and Scott Murray in London last week. Commercial obligations and photo shoots such as yesterday's intensifies the build-up from a long way off, though it also serves as something of a distraction from the actual preparations for the tour. Not surprisingly, O'Driscoll and O'Kelly confessed they'd upped their training levels since the announcement of the Lions squad. "It's kind of hard in a way because I'm really focusing on the training," said O'Driscoll. "Sometimes it gets muddled in the middle. That's fine if it's at the end of the day when you're finishing your training but during the middle of the day it kind of messes up your schedule a little bit."
The 37-man squad and management team assemble in the Tylney Hall Hotel near Basingstoke on May 26th and although O'Driscoll was regarded as one of the squad's racing certainties it was, he said, still a huge relief to make the cut. "Because now you can start planning for it. It's very difficult when people keep saying to you `oh what are you doing for your holidays after the Lions?' You don't want to tempt fate. As much as you're spoken of as a dead cert in the papers you still aren't until you see your name on Ceefax or, as it turned out, I got a voice message on my mobile from Donal Lenihan."
No less than O'Driscoll, O'Kelly looked fit to burst as he contemplated the tour ahead. "Everybody I meet now asks `when are you going?' or `what are the dates?'. It's good. Most people have a good knowledge of it and it makes you aware what it means both to myself and to people in general. If you allow yourself to look ahead or dream a little it's just unbelievable what could happen."
As expected the Cork Constitution-Young Munster AIB League semi-final will go ahead at 1.0 p.m. next Saturday in Temple Hill and will be televised live by RTE. The other semi-final between Galwegians and Dungannon has been set for 2.30 p.m. following a meeting yesterday between the IRFU and representatives of the two clubs.
