Three areas that will decide this semi-final: Wales v France

1. Half-back mastery

ONLY the French could somehow get away with the daft plan to abandon four years of painstaking development in a key area at the 11th hour and go with something left of field. The decision once again by Marc Lievremont to select Morgan Parra at out-half ahead of the more traditional skills of Francois Trinh-Duc is about to be put under the ultimate scrutiny. For sheer presence of character alone, Dimitri Yachvili has to start in this team and he, quite rightly in my opinion, retains the scrum-half berth. Along with the irrepressible Imanol Harinordoquy, he has now taken ownership of the team after that mid-tournament crisis defeat to Tonga.

The problem is Parra — fine player that he is — does not possess the game management skills to direct a team from No 10. In addition, it is inevitable he will have the considerable bulk of Jamie Roberts — taller and heavier than Harinordoquy, by the way — bearing down on him early and often. You can just see Warren Gatland and Shaun Edwards tweaking the Welsh game plan to ensure the link between Parra and the menacing threat of the French outside backs is cut off at source.