Ronan O'Gara: I would much prefer to play New Zealand in the quarter-final than France

If France go down, and that’s unlikely, they will die on the turf. They’d rather go home on their shields if they can’t carry them. 

SHOW OF FORCE: Kurt-Lee Arendse, left, celebrates with his team-mates after scoring South Africa’s second try in last Friday’s rout of New Zealand. 

We shall all be wise in a month’s time, wiser still the week after when the decisive final World Cup pool games are done and dusted. Between now and then, the air is heavy with intrigue, storylines and plots twisting further still as a consequence of the last round of warm-up games a week ago. Where it’s South Africa and their extended bomb squad, French psychology, England’s crisis, the All Blacks on the ropes, Wales and the Wallabies reaching for something (…anything), or Johnny Sexton and Ireland, there’s no shortage of conversations at the water cooler.

Meanwhile, back at the grindstone, the Top 14 moves into Week 3 and La Rochelle go across to Clermont Auvergne this Saturday. But go back a week and the morning of Round 2, at home to Lyon…