In the first of a series of World Cup columns, Trevor Brenna ngives his thoughts on tomorrow's meeting between Ireland and France

Setting the right pre-match mood, pressing the right mental buttons, can be critical. Singing Amhrán na bhFiann always fired me up. You take pride in your national anthem. The French have La Marseillaise, the song which asks the soldiers to walk together to beat the enemy and the need for the blood of the enemy to fertilise their soil. In comparison Ireland's Call is weak and wouldn't even fire up the Barnhall under-12s. If the Irish rugby team is such a unique political and historical entity, then the IRFU should insist on both songs being played.

The passion of La Marseillaise and the Argentinian national anthem made up for a long-winded opening ceremony. There were a few hundred people dressed up as Umpa Lumpas from Willy Wonka's Chocolate Factory with a few ex-players running onto the pitch. You'd see a better ceremony at the opening of the Community Games.

The Argentina win over France was not the surprise it was made out to be. They had beaten France in four of the previous five meetings. These Argentinian guys have nothing to lose. I phoned my Toulouse clubmates, Omar Hasan and Patricio Albacete in the week leading up to the match. There was singing in the background and I asked them where they were.

"We're on the bus back from training," Omar said. "You sound like you're having a great time." He said: "There's no pressure on us. All the pressure is on France."

These Pumas are a really close-knit group, they seem to be enjoying themselves. True, France appeared to have much the better build-up but unfortunately for them, Bernard Laporte got his team selection wrong. Not just in my view - virtually all of the French rugby public agrees.

Examples were Christophe Dominici on one wing and the best winger in the squad, Cedric Heymans, at fullback. In my five years at Stade Toulouse I cannot recall Cedric playing fullback once. He had one warm-up game and yet Laporte decided to leave Clement Poitrenaud, an experienced fullback, out of the 22. In a 5-2 split on the bench, he picked a scrumhalf and an outhalf, so therefore had no cover for centre, wing or fullback, which was absolutely ridiculous.

Leaving a player of Sebastien Chabal's ability on the bench was crazy, and what was the point of five forwards on his bench if he wasn't going to use them?

Ireland enjoyed the luck of the Irish in being awarded 14 points, for a penalty try and a try that never was, against Namibia. All the talk from the camp before that game was about the possibility of the group coming down to points difference. No one ever talked about Namibia giving them a game.

Then Eddie O'Sullivan picked the same team and bench except for Shane Horgan against Georgia. What does that create in a squad? In my opinion, having been involved in many, many squads it creates an "us and them". The same thing happened in Leinster in my last year there, when those of us outside the first 15 were called the "Balloon Corps".

Most of them should have been given a rest against Georgia, with those brought in told this was their opportunity to fight for a Test place. Everybody else is doing it, even the Georgians made 11 changes, because they were targeting Namibia.

In his selections, Eddie showed he had no confidence in several of the players he brought out here. They won't get any game time unless someone breaks a leg. Basically they're here to hold tackle bags and provide opposition in lineouts, scrums and other drills. Laporte has used all 29 players in his first two games, bar the third hooker Sebastien Bruno, who will probably play against Georgia.

I question why Eddie was given a four-year extension before the World Cup. There is no sense in this, and questions have to be asked as to what he has done with supposedly our best generation of players.

That said, the players are laughing at the wild rumours flying around about what's happening in the squad, and there's huge excitement in France about this match. The French rugby public do recognise that the Irish will be like wounded animals and as with the Argentinian game, the pressure is back on France.

Laporte has learned his lessons from the opening two games and other guys have forced their way in. Pushing Chabal into the secondrow is no bad thing for France, there's a better balance to the backrow and back three, but the one weakness is picking David Marty ahead of Yannick Jauzion. Probably the best centre in the world has been left on the bench. But, even so, Laporte has a much better balance and impact on the bench.

Even though man for man there doesn't seem to be much difference between the teams, I really hope Ireland win. But the only way I can see that happening is a miracle, and then all of the things that have been said about Eddie O'Sullivan will be forgotten.

Questions have to be asked about his selection for this game too. The treatment of Geordan Murphy suggests there has to be something personal there. Dropping Peter Stringer from the 22 can only send out bad signals. The back five in the pack needs freshening up and I believe this would have been an ideal game for Alan Quinlan.

Ireland's problems date back to the Argentinian tour and they haven't played well since the Six Nations. After all the bulking up and the trips to Spala, we look lethargic. France look in better shape physically and have much better form since the start of the warm-up games. I know people think Frederic Michalak can be flaky, but when he's good he sparkles, and at the moment he seems to be really sparkling.

Unfortunately, I think France will win because they have been scrummaging better, they play a quicker game than Ireland, they attack better off turnovers, they offload the ball in the tackle and they play with more width.