The big wheel is still turning at Marseille's Borély beach, day and night through all four seasons, €8 a go for two loops. It is 55m high and from the top, you can see into the Stade Vélodrome a few hundred metres inland, where, yesterday afternoon, France and Ireland were busy getting ready to go around again themselves.
It is three months and 19 days since the World Cup quarterfinals here and a lot of the posters advertising the matches are still up, but it is already time for the cycle to start over and the opening match of this year's Six Nations.
This time last year, France and Ireland were first and second in the world rankings and the match between them turned out to be the title decider. Twelve months on, they are behind South Africa in the rankings, and France, who are fourth, trail New Zealand too. Not that the standings signify much at the moment. South Africa have the Webb Ellis Cup and that is about all that matters, but that shift does reflect the hard truth that while neither of these two teams played better than they did in the years before the World Cup, they fetched up a score short when it counted in the knockout rounds.
Tonight, then, offers a first glimpse of how they have handled that setback, the changes they have made to the way they want to play and, though neither side will admit it, the opportunity, too, to exorcise some of the lingering disappointment they must feel.
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