THE sun is shining on French rugby at present and captain Fabien Galthie today was optimistic the bright conditions would continue until the World Cup final on November 22.

The sun is shining on French rugby at present and captain Fabien Galthie today forecasted the bright conditions will hover over the squad’s base on Bondi beach right through until the World Cup final on November 22.

France coach Bernard Laporte today named an unchanged team for the World Cup semi-final showdown with England – and then paid a glowing tribute to Clive Woodward’s team.

Ireland go into their toughest match of a tough World Cup with coach Eddie O’Sullivan convinced they are not feeling the strain of having already played two difficult matches in the last two weeks.

Jerome Thion will lead the French line-out charge against Ireland on Sunday with a clear rallying cry – no penalties.

RENOWNED Bondi Beach, a few miles outside of Sydney, was the spectacular setting yesterday for the utterly predictable French selection to face Ireland in the quarter-final of the World Cup in Melbourne on Sunday.

France will be at full strength for their mouth-watering World Cup quarter-final encounter with Ireland in Melbourne on Sunday.

Tony Marsh today completed a courageous comeback from cancer when he was named ahead of Damien Traille to play in France’s opening World Cup clash against Fiji.

CHAMPIONS Australia plan to play their strongest team in every match at the World Cup, according to coach Eddie Jones.

SOUTH AFRICA have been psyching themselves up for their World Cup clash with England next month by slamming into tackle bags fitted with England jerseys.

France coach Bernard Laporte insists he isn’t worried by the return of England’s star players for the second Test at Twickenham tomorrow.

New Zealand survived a determined French comeback to win their one-off Test match in Christchurch today.

THE staging of the Heineken Cup final at Lansdowne Road today may seem to be a most bizarre decision by the ERC committee, but as recently as last Wednesday, when Celtic played Porto in Spain in the UEFA Cup final, we saw its parallel in another sport.

WHEN the final whistle sounded on Munster’s pulsating 25-31 semi-final victory over Toulouse in Bordeaux, little did we think that it would take the aristocrats of French rugby three years to reach the penultimate stage of the competition again. The fall-out from that defeat was massive.

TOULOUSE are relishing their Heineken Cup semi-final appointment with Munster on Saturday, April 26, and they reckon, like Munster did with Leicester, they have an old score to settle.

Toulouse 32 Northampton 16

Toulouse 28 London Irish 23