France 9 England 14

Saturday 13 October, Saint-Denis : The New Zealand group Te Vaka at the free concert before the semi-final between France and England. NZ had been expected to qualify, but they lost to France in the quarter-final at Cardiff.

President Sarkozy was booed by a large section of the crowd when he appeared on the screen during the singing of the Marseillaise. Apparently they didn't show pictures of him inside the stadium.

There were plenty of New Zealanders watching the match free on the giant screen provided by the Mairie de Saint-Denis, as well as Australians and South Africans.

I was standing next to a group of rather smug and self-opinionated Brummies, so I moved to another part of the crowd. But England deserved to win on the day, just as South Africa deserved to win the final.