So what can we talk about then eh

In just over a week, we are going to have a problem.

Quite simply we will have to start communicating again. Not that we have stopped communicating lately but we are going to have to search out some new topics to discuss.

Such is the dominance of the Rugby World Cup that it seems to have completely taken over all meaningful communication.

You simply can't go anywhere, it feels, without spending your time discussing the merits of this player or that, who is injured or which team you fancy to claim the coveted Webb Ellis Trophy.

It really has become an obsession. What it means, of course, is the art of conversation is almost dead.

Rugby has taken the place of weather as the conversation starter, the topic of chat around the water cooler at work; the icebreaker.

But come October 24, we are suddenly going to have to exercise our minds again and look for actual topics to discuss.

Heaven forbid, it may even be forced on us as early as Monday.

Hopefully not that soon, but in any case shortly after the grand finale there will surely be the usual post-mortems to be conducted into the tournament and how New Zealand fared, which will keep the chins wagging on the topic for a time yet.

Oh dear, all that navel-gazing; the blame and recriminations.

It's hard to say what would be worse, the celebrations and subsequent hero worship should the wounded All Blacks actually pull off victory, or the pain and misery of defeat and another four years of soul-searching and cursing our rotten luck.

Once the hype dies down though, and the rules of conversation return to normal, we will have to relearn the art of normal interactive dialogue; asking questions about people: how they are, and what they have been doing.

What's more, we will have to provide answers when those questions are asked of us.

Of course, we may actually find engaging with one another on a more personal level to be quite pleasant. It certainly will be a relief for all the rugby widows and widowers out there, not to mention those who simply don't care for the game or its showpiece tournament.

After several weeks of suffocation under the weight of rugby-mania, it will be nice to breathe in deeply on the fresh air of normal life.

But only if the final result goes our way!

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