"The one thing Ireland lack is the belief that they can go all the way." That was the considered view of former New Zealand captain Sean Fitzpatrick as he dismissed Ireland's prospects in the Rugby World Cup, which starts tonight in Paris. On Sunday, Ireland will play Namibia in their opening match. Undoubtedly, Irish team captain Brian O'Driscoll would reject the Kiwi's claim. He could point to the record books: three Triple Crown successes (victories over England, Wales and Scotland) in the last four years, while this year only a narrow defeat to France in Croke Park denied Ireland the coveted RBS Six Nations trophy. That level of performance and achievement scarcely suggests a team lacking in self-belief. And certainly no Irish rugby XV has been better prepared, physically and psychologically, for the challenges that lie ahead.
Over the next six weeks, 20 national teams will play 40 games before a victor emerges on October 20th. The All Blacks remain firm favourites to take the title and Ireland is somewhat handicapped by a poor draw in a very challenging group, which includes two strong teams, France and Argentina. Nevertheless, part of the endless fascination of sport lies in its sheer unpredictability: pre-match firm favourites may fail to perform on the day and, in a knockout competition, less fancied outsiders can sometimes exploit their luck and cause a major upset.
The Rugby World Cup has been a tournament of memorable events - like that moment in Johannesburg in 1995, when Nelson Mandela donned a Springbok jersey. The symbolism helped a largely white South African team to a World Cup victory and united a mainly black nation behind their efforts. Sport and history rhymed. In France, newly elected President Nicolas Sarkozy hopes to crown his first 100 days in office with a World Cup victory by the national side. But his crass attempts to marry sport and politics may well backfire. Indeed they deserve to fail. He told the French players, having already chosen the coach Bernard Laporte as his new minister of sport: "France is counting on you. You know what you have to do . . . I won, and it's now up to you to do it."
Winston Churchill, once remarked that the greatest burden he had to bear in the war was the cross of Lorraine, a reference to the Free French leader, Charles De Gaulle. For this competition, the French team's greatest burden may well be the weight of expectations now placed on their shoulders, in the form of the cross of Sarkozy. However, with Ireland facing France on September 21st, neither the Irish captain nor his team will be complaining. Allez L'Irlande.