For Fellow Anoraks

As the 2007 Rugby Union World Cup is taking place mainly in France, here is a very short video I 'shot' at the Stade De France in August. It shows the dressing room, toilets, physio tables and showers used by the designated home team. There's a shot of the 'home' warm-up area and then the players entrance to the playing area. As both dressing rooms only have three urinals and three physio tables attached to them you can only hope there's not a big demand for either room at the end of the game!

The lighting in the warm-up area is similar to that in the stadium itself, this because if the players went straight from dressing room to pitch they would be blinded by the floodlights due to the intensity of the lights. The colours in the warm-up areas and the dressing room were chosen my Michel Platini, the great man being an expert in sports physiology, the are designed to relax the players and then focus their attention of the job in hand.

As you will hear Fatima explain, unlike in England where the home dressing room is usually bigger, both 'home' and 'away' dressing rooms are the same size, as are the warm-up areas. Unlike older stadia the teams cannot hear each other until they meet in the tunnel area, this is because of the expensive sound proof tiling system in place.

This is the dressing room England will be using on Friday against the Boks.