Expectation has been dampened after Ireland hobbled to a seven point win over Italy in the third pool game yesterday. Beforehand, Irish supporters were bullish about the prospect of beating France in the final match of the round.
Following yesterday's chastening eighty minutes, Joe Schmidt insisted that Ireland would be underdogs going into the next match and now Johnny Sexton is telling us not to read too much into France's miserable Six Nations record in recent years.
Echoing (although perhaps not consciously) the analysis of George Hook in advance of the tournament, Sexton says that the intensity of the Top 14 precludes the French from putting their best foot forward in the Six Nations.
Indeed, he suggests that having to play for France in February and March seems almost like a 'burden' on the players. He expects them to be a wholly different proposition in the World Cup.
He alluded to their showing in 2011, after a season in which Italy beat them in Rome and then Tonga shocked them in the group stages, they ended losing the World Cup final by a point, in a game where the referee gave them nothing.
What I did get from them is that the World Cup is huge over there.
The Six Nations is almost like a burden on them in the middle of a Top 14 season, that’s the kind of impression that I got, that it almost disrupts their league season.
And then it comes to a World Cup it’s almost like they build for this, it’s like they use players through the Six Nations year on year to have a big playing pool for the World Cup.
And you can see from their previous results, how many semi-finals and finals they’ve been in.
Arguably they should have won the last World Cup and they were in turmoil in the group stages.
For the winner this weekend, there is the prospect of Argentina and for the loser, there is New Zealand.
