The rain rolls through the Paris basin and out into the hills where Raymond Domenech is booked for a final evening matinee. He enters the Clairefontaine pavilion through a white curtain, exchanging enigmatic grins with the departing Thierry Henry. There are no smiles, no cheek kisses, no 'bonsoirs' for any of the assembled. Banal courtesies were decommissioned here a long time ago.

His grey hair is tousled, his thick eyebrows curl defensively like jet-black antlers. He sits on a high stool, silently offering himself to the sound engineer for miking. There's not much love in the room.

The conference quickly settles into an edgy duel. Domenech's body language is distant, his answers laconic and unrevealing. Occasionally, he feigns lightness, but the smile absconds too swiftly for it to be real.

Before long, a journalist asks if he has considered the possibility that tonight's game might be his last as French coach.

"I have experience of those knock-out games where you can die," he says gravely. "But, if you didn't ask me the question, I wouldn't have thought that it could be my last game. So thank you for the question!"

The French media seem to regard this whole play-off thing as an indignity visited upon them by a manager as eccentric as a maiden aunt. He, in turn, treats them like a mob in urgent need of delousing. The two sides rear up on one another like roosters.

Only in France could this happen, the national mood flapping like a bedspread on a line. They may have a critical away goal to cushion them in Stade de France, but there's still an odd lust for conflict.

Domenech's France have, of late, been playing with spirit and panache, so how come permanent dark clouds seem to roll around him?

"The Republic of The Player is back," gushed one French journalist earlier, recounting how three senior members of the squad took tactical control of Les Bleus in a confrontation with Domenech before their meeting with Romania last September.

strategic

The coach, thus, is depicted as a needless adjunct to the story. Just like Didier Deschamps in '98 and '02 and Zinedine Zidane, Lilian Thuram and Claude Makelele in '06; Henry, Nicolas Anelka and Co now set the strategic charter for France. Player-power brings success. That, at least, is the journalists' view.

So what unfolds now is a game, media asking Domenech about tactic and barely taking the time to scribble his response. "I have the same feeling I had before the first leg," he sighs. "I can't wait now, because the only truth is the day of the game."

You'd need search-lights and klaxons to find the truth here.

A story broke in Ireland last Saturday of Domenech and Henry rowing just hours before the game in Croke Park. The story was picked up tentatively in France, l'Equipe choosing to pose it as a question.

"It's a pity that that came into the French media," sighed Henry when the subject was raised yesterday. "Because it isn't true. If it was in the English or Irish press, the French shouldn't just have taken the story (without checking). I was eight years a player in England, so I know how that happens over there."

Which brings us nicely to the exact language used by Lassana Diarra when the final whistle blew in Dublin on Saturday. Diarra has, essentially, called the Irish players liars, so you might imagine his quotes would be handled like unstable explosives here. That we'd be avoiding any sudden movements and keeping all exits free of bags. But Domenech just tosses a lit match in our direction.

"It's not our problem," he says. "The players and I are used to these side-issues. We are only interested in the main issues. Some English press came out with some bullshit about words Lassana never said. What can I do about that?"

A French voice interjects. It wasn't just the 'English' press that fingered Diarra. Irish players and management had their say too, confirming, as the French put it, that there had been "dirty words". Trapattoni, after all, rather colourfully observed how he knew "the sin" but would not name "the sinner".

Domenech purses his lips, an intellectual being asked to judge a book of second-rate sonnets.

"I am very doubtful that Trapattoni heard what Lassana said," he says. "He was near me. So I don't believe that Trapattoni was a real witness to that." Trap a liar too, eh? We're getting the whole rainbow of Domenech's talents now.

He laments the absence through injury of Abou Diaby, Eric Abidal and Jeremy Toulalon from his team-sheet for tonight, but quickly adds that he is not of a mind to complain.

"For this game, we need cold blood and patience," says Domenech. "But also to be clever and enthusiastic. I trust our fans. With the 6,000 that came to Dublin, they show us they want us to go to the World Cup.

"So, we don't need to motivate the group. I would say the opposite. I need to quieten the group. We don't need to over-excite the players. They must relax. And my job is to make sure they do."

smirk

He may be scatter-brained as they say, but you can see why he would happily take most French journalists out the back of this extraordinary football institute and compost them. Many smirk openly at his answers, as if they're just looking at a delicate child, best kept close to the apron.

"For sure, the second leg might be different because of the one-goal lead," he says. "The approach of the Irish might be different. That's not for me to say. But like Thierry said before me, we shall play to win the game, not draw.

"We have quality players to play positive football and press for the win. But nothing is yet achieved."

And the possibility of penalties?

This is an old wound. France lost the last World Cup final to a tug of a fruit machine and you can tell Domenech has no stomach for the gamble. "In my mind, it's not going to happen," he says.

Henry accentuates the sense of mission. "All I can tell you is we're going to play the same way, try to win the game," says the Barcelona striker. "You know I have a lot of respect for the Irish team, a lot of respect for Trapattoni. I'm sure they'll have a game plan.

"There is a game to win. When we step on the pitch, it's 0-0. We have to forget about the goal we scored in Dublin, because the hardest task is still ahead of us. We will only relax when we qualify. If we do that, we might be on the way to a great tournament.

"But we don't expect anything special from the Irish team, even if we know the physical fight will be there. It's always a positive physical challenge against the Irish and I say that as a compliment."

Trapattoni's men, of course, must keep their goal intact to have any hope of spooking France. But the memory of '93 and that calamitous late meltdown against Bulgaria still plays on Parisien minds. Henry says that the players feel "the boost" of their supporters' backing. Yet there is tension too.

Lose tonight and a whole nation will be reading Raymond Domenech his rights.

- Vincent Hogan

Irish Independent