A picture postcard
A folded stub
A program of the play
File away your photographs
Of your holiday

And your mementos
Will turn to dust
But that’s the price you pay
For every year’s a souvenir
That slowly fades away

Billy Joel’s short but poignant composition “souvenir”, written in 1974 for his Streetlight Serenade album, would seem to sum up perfectly the thoughts and feelings of many us as the 2023 Rugby World Cup comes to an end.

As the programmes, tickets, newspapers, scarves, and other mementos find their way into “that” drawer, the return to normal life seems a bit of a challenge on this dark Sunday morning.

Where Mr Joel may have been incorrect is in the final lines of his song. There are memories of this tournament that will definitely not slowly fade away, in fact they will gain momentum and exaggeration as the years go by.

That magnificent rendering of La Marseillaise in its spiritual home, when Les Bleus faced Namibia, will just get louder and more emotional in recollection than it actually was on that muggy, thundery, airless night at the Velodrome.

We certainly won’t forget Antoine Dupont’s zygomaticomaxillary complex fracture, although we may not remember how to spell it.

And what about Portugal’s win over Fiji in Toulouse ? there are rugby fans still stuck in the corner of bar Spot Lisboa on Rua Do Norte in Lisbon, desperately hungover and staring at a blank television screen in joyous disbelief.

I have no doubt that the memories of Amato Fakatva’s wonderful try for Japan against Argentina will gain in yardage over the coming years ,as will the number of opponents he beat on the way to the try-line.

On a cold wet winters morning , we may discover unexpectedly the odd Euro and metro ticket in our pocket, taking us back to that warm sunny bar in Marseille, or the cafe in Paris, where the waiter told us about the dangers of Tomas Ramos and bed bugs.

More importantly those friends and family we shared the moments with will ensure those memories don’t turn to dust, as tales of Paris, Lille, Lyon, St Etienne, Marseille, Nice and Nantes are recounted and re-lived over a beer or a glass of wine or two for years to come.

Rugby World Cup 2023 began in Paris on a hot, steamy, sun drenched late summer Friday, and ended in the very same city on a damp chilly October Saturday night. The final day coincided with the winter solstice when we turned the clocks back one hour, in reality what we desperately wanted to do was turn the clocks back seven weeks.