What’s a World Cup without French drama and derision?

Ah, France. A rugby cliche-magnet, if ever there was one. A gravity well for lazy pundit soundbites to fall into. Turn on any live match involving Les Bleus and it’s only a matter of drinking-game time before a former player — to much sage round-table nodding — will come out with that fateful phrase, “you never know which France will turn up”.

Play the game on Sunday. Watch the broadcast of the quarter-final against Wales from the beginning, and have a mouthful of tea if you hear a variation on that theme inside five minutes. Two swigs if it’s inside the first two.