Chris Rattue: Oh please, let's have an upset

COMMENT

At last we have the chance, if only remote, of a genuine upset result at the World Cup.

Can the dour and limited Scots overturn the classy but moody French and put a halt to the procession of predictable and often lopsided scores?

The truth of this tournament is that you can see rugby of a higher standard down at your local reserve than some of the rubbish that has gone on at the "third-biggest sports event in the world."

Tonight's game will not necessarily raise the roof at Telstra Stadium in Sydney, if it had one.

But at least we can hope, with reasonable confidence, that what is in store at the Olympic stadium will be stimulating.

What Scotland v France does offer is the first possibility of an outsider tipping over a member of the Big Five since Argentina blew their chance against Australia on opening night.

If the French don't have their minds on the job and don't parlez-vous with Irish referee David McHugh, then who knows? And this tournament needs an upset.

It's a rare opportunity. Apart from members of the Big Five going against their ranking, the only shocks you are likely to get are from some of the Sydney hotel prices.

What could raise a real roof would be for Ireland to knock over our hosts and defending champions in Melbourne.

That's a tantalising prospect, but it is a week away, with a lot more humdrum play to come before then.

There have even been attempts to build up games such as the Italy v Wales clash in Canberra tonight as "mighty," but mighty is in the eye of the beholder. Reasonable NPC teams could deal to them - and in Italy's case, have done so.

So far, the "world in union" has been a jolly number in which the junior members of this far-flung family have been encouraged to hurl themselves crazily around the backyard while the big guys join in now and then, but sit mainly inside plotting more serious games.

Since the growth and spirit of rugby as a world game is the underlying theme, and some of these teams are virtual sporting charities, the idea is to mention only every 10th knock-on.

Georgia for instance, who face enormous battles on their doorstep, will feel wanted and at home at the cup. There is still some joy in just being here - despite huge defeats - and who would deny them that, even though as a real-world sports event this is largely a non-starter.

The champions of this World Cup have been the crowds of mainly Australians who have thrown themselves behind the teams and into the matches.

Without their good-natured revelry, many of the contests would have been further exposed as substandard fare.

Take Fiji's match against Japan, played in front of a colourful 17,000 crowd at Townsville on Thursday night.

The TAB could have offered odds on picking the minute in which someone first caught the ball.

You began to wonder if the players would start balancing coloured balls on their noses, because they appeared to be trying to catch the rugby ball with flippers.

Instead of clapping, spectators should have been throwing sardines.

The ball wasn't just being knocked on - it was flying out of hands at such a speed that it started to look more like the World Series than the World Cup.

Maybe the light was shining in their eyes, but it was the rest of us who were being tortured.

As for the Fijian forwards ... a Sydney columnist had suggested the rolling maul needed to be removed from rugby, and Fiji not only took this to heart, but decided the scrum was unnecessary as well.

It's up to Scotland to put some starch into this tournament tonight, although under normal circumstances you wouldn't fancy their chances.

They do have a short but decent record against the French at the cup, drawing at Christchurch in 1987 and losing 22-19 at Pretoria eight years later.

Historically, Scotland and France have been evenly matched, and Scotland have won three of their last 10 encounters, all since 1995.

But they have lost their last four clashes, including a record 38-3 defeat in Paris early this year, and apart from being competitive in two tests against the shaky South Africans, have been fairly awful for the rest of the year, even managing to lose to Wales.

The Scots have been poor in the cup so far, have lost two leading flankers - New Zealander Martin Leslie and Australian Andrew Mower - and face a French side renowned for their World Cup achievements.

This is the last big hurrah for highly-respected Scottish coach Ian McGeechan, and maybe he can draw one last inspiring performance from his charges. France, who will field the side who crushed Fiji apart from the return of fit-again prop Sylvain Marconnet, should win.

Let us at least hope the Scots are valiant and can take the game to the wire, before the cup slips under the spectators' waves.

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