KEY POINTS:
It's a question that has taxed rugby coaches for generations as they prepared to tackle les Bleus: what to make of the French?
No team are more capable of veering from the exhilarating to the exasperating quicker than this year's tournament hosts.
So here's the big question: which
French team will turn up at Stade de France for the opening match against Argentina early next Saturday?
The muddlers who can make you wonder where the joie de vivre went?
Or the men who can play with a sweeping elan and vibrancy to match anyone?
We shall see, but there's no question the French, if they start well, have the ability to become an irresistible force in this cup. If not, the swell of emotion will turn swiftly against them.
So mark the Argentine game down as one of the critical clashes of the pool section.
In the five previous editions of the cup, France have been beaten finalists twice (1987 and 1999), were third in 1995 after beating England 19-9 in the third-fourth playoff, lost in the corresponding match to the All Blacks four years ago, and were beaten in the quarter-finals by England in 1991.
So, there or thereabouts is their cup story thus far. Don't read much into their lead-up.
For starters, coach Bernard Laporte came to New Zealand for two tests he didn't want to play, and said as much, so what must his players have thought?
They were belted at Eden Park and Wellington's Cake Tin and its relevance can be judged by the fact only two of that team - captain Rafael Ibanez and caveman lookalike Sebastien Chabal - are in the World Cup 30.
They beat England 21-15 at Twickenham, then 22-9 in Marseille in the return fixture, before beating Wales 34-7 at the Millennium Stadium to round things off.
For what it's worth, they are the Six Nations champions and without doubt they have some class acts in their squad. The trick for Laporte might lie in getting his first-choice selection right.
He has sharp, athletic loose forwards like Imanol Harinordoquy, Yannick Nyanga, Julien Bonnaire and the ageing but ruthless Serge Betsen; hardened locks in Fabien Pelous and Jerome Thion; a couple of decent halfbacks in Jean-Baptiste Elissalde and Pierre Mignoni.
Laporte's No 10 options are the steady but predictable David Skrela, the mercurial but erratic Frederic Michalak and the highly rated 21-year-old Lionel Beauxis.
Wings Aurelien Rougerie and Cedric Heymans are no slouches; fullback Clement Poitrenaud is one of those talented ball players but not someone you'd want parked under a high ball defending your line in the final minute; Yannick Jauzion and Damien Traille are solid midfielders, if lacking the spark of some of their predecessors, one of whom, Jo Maso, seems to have been the French manager forever.
Up front, the French front row have been shoved about by the All Blacks the last few times they've met. They aren't alone in that, but will need to sharpen their set-piece work.
Laporte is one of the great survivors. He enjoys considerable patronage among the movers and shakers of French rugby and will finally move to a probable post as Minister for Sport after the cup.
He is prone to the odd peculiar outburst, such as his contretemps with referee Stuart Dickinson in a Wellington hotel foyer this year; and his thinly veiled insinuations that all is not up-front and kosher in the drug testing departments of England and New Zealand.
The French are in the toughest of the pools. They start against Argentina, then play Namibia in Toulouse, Ireland in the biggie of the group at Stade de France before finishing with Georgia in Marseille.
Expect them to have won the group - it's far from a given, but bear with me for the moment - which would set them up to play, probably, Scotland in Paris.
From there, it'll be (in probable descending order of likeliness) South Africa, England or Wales in the semifinals.
Where a lion-sized cat will be thrown into the mix is if they finish second in their pool. Ireland and Argentina are no slouches; it could happen.
That would move the French across the channel to Cardiff and - it can be said with 99 per cent certainty - the All Blacks will be waiting.
If that happens, hold on to your hats because one of the two teams most pundits reckon should contest the final will be packing up.
And if France are removed at the quarter-finals, what will that do for the impetus of the final fortnight?
And if France win, emulating their soccer counterparts in 1998, cue celebrations up and down the Champs-Elysees.
FRANCE
Coach: Bernard Laporte
Backs: Lionel Beauxis, Vincent Clerc, Christophe Dominici, Jean-Baptiste Elissalde, Cedric Heymans, Yannick Jauzion, David Marty, Frederic Michalak, Pierre Mignoni, Aurelien Rougerie, Clement Poitrenaud, David Skrela, Damien Traille.
Forwards: Serge Betsen, Julien Bonnaire, Sebastien Bruno, Sebastien Chabal, Pieter de Villiers, Thierry Dusautoir, Imanol Harinordoquy, Raphael Ibanez, Remy Martin, Nicolas Mas, Olivier Milloud, Lionel Nallet, Yannick Nyanga, Fabian Pelous, Jean-Baptiste Poux, Dmitri Szarzewski, Jerome Thion.
