Damian Ryan of Doheny & Nesbitt's pub at Lower Baggot Street said: "We have organised a free double-decker bus for our customers for the French game next Sunday. We have always been a big rugby pub for games at Lansdowne Road so we just want to look after our customers that have been coming into us for years."

Sunday Tribune columnist Ross O'Carroll Kelly has welcomed the move at a time when "the beautiful game's going to the dork side".

"So now rugby fans from my part of town can get tanked up before the game without having to listen to people talk about Jayo and Sam and battered sausages. The bus is, of course, armour-plated."

The 51 Bar at Haddington Road has organised five buses to the game, for a fee of ¤5 per person, with a free pint thrown in for those who make it back to the pub from the northside.

Read Ross O'Carroll Kelly in Tribune Review, page 24