Rugby World Cup 2015: Luke Romano up for physical confrontation

All Blacks lock Luke Romano. Photo / Brett Phibbs

Sudden-death matches can bring out the best, and the worst, in players, and All Blacks lock Luke Romano is preparing to fight fire with fire against France in Sunday's World Cup quarter-final.

Romano isn't one to step back from a physical confrontation, and, although he is unlikely to start at the Millennium Stadium, with Sam Whitelock and Brodie Retallick the favourites to get the nod, he could get a place on the reserves bench.

If so, the Crusaders lock is willing to provide a significant impact if and when he gets an opportunity.

The French were on the receiving end of foul play in the final pool match against Ireland when flanker Sean O'Brien struck lock Pascal Pape a hard blow to the chest in the first minute - for which he was later cited and is likely to receive a suspension.

But in the past the Tricolours have known to cross the line themselves. There were allegations of eye-gouging against centre Aurelien Rougerie on Richie McCaw in the World Cup final four years ago - TV replays clearly showed a headbutt and a hand scraping across a trapped McCaw's eyes - and the "Battle of Nantes" in 1986, when Wayne Shelford suffered a torn scrotum, remains fresh in the minds of many New Zealanders of a certain age.

The scrutiny by match officials and citing officers means such incidents are becoming more rare - a point made by loose forwards Kieran Read and Jerome Kaino today - but Romano said anything was possible in the heat of the moment.

"Well, hey, that can be a surprise that rugby throws up," he said. "Every team is going out to win and every team will do anything to win - it's a quarter-final at the Rugby World Cup ... The French will throw everything at us and we'll throw everything straight back at them."

Kaino, the Blues skipper who feels his game is growing alongside the All Blacks', said the cost of losing a player to a card is too high to pay in a knockout game.

"We don't go into a game thinking about that sort of stuff. Our sole focus is to get our game going. We've seen the trend of referees - how they've been at this World Cup. You don't want to be on that side of the referee and get carded and cost your team. We want to be clean - play hard but fair."

Read said: "I don't think the game needs that. We've got a great game. Let's showcase the talents we've got within it. We'll play it as hard as we can physically but certainly as fair as we can. If teams are going to start doing that we just have to adapt as quickly as we can."