Ireland v France: Trevor Brennan of Barnhall and Toulouse is uniquely placed to assess the merits of both sides

For those who have not yet visited Trevor Brennan's French outpost, the former Irish flanker and second row is the real mayor of Toulouse. Having played with and endeared himself to the South of France club and local population, Barnhall's first international has gone into his second year of French rugby as the only Irish player who has faced almost all of the current French team who play Ireland in tomorrow's quarter-final.

Contrary to the usual pessimism that accompanies big Irish games, Brennan's view is that he cannot see a whole lot in the French team's performances to date that would suggest that France are the obvious choice to go through to the next round of the competition.

Nor, he reckons, is anything a foregone conclusion from Eddie O'Sullivan's perspective.

Brennan sitting on the fence?

"Sure, France have hit form as well as Ireland but you also have to look at the teams France have played compared to Ireland's run in the competition so far," he says.

"France hasn't played a difficult team yet in the World Cup. Scotland are not great and have not been for two seasons and they're really the only rated side France have beaten. And don't forget, Japan ran France for 40 minutes.

"I spoke to Xavier Garbajosa (Toulouse team-mate), who came back to France recently when he injured his knee, and he said to me that if there was ever a time that Ireland could beat France it was now. Ireland won the last Six Nations match and he reckons Ireland could do it again if they play the way they did against Australia."

While the French pack notoriously tear into opposition defences and hope that their traditionally lively back line can imaginatively feed off the broken pieces, Brennan sees coach Bernard Laporte as being conservative in his team selection, perhaps thinking about counteracting Irish strengths as much as about playing to those of his own team.

"Ireland looked tired in the game with Argentina but against Australia, they should have won it. Having been involved with Irish teams in the past, I know that the match against Australia will have given them a lift and will really have brought confidence up. That's an important factor for Irish teams in matches like this," he says.

"France have picked two physically big centres in Marsh and Jauzion. They are big players. The back row of Betsen and Harinordoquy and Magne, yeah, it's strong too with Pelous and Thion in the second row. But over here they think it's a 50-50 match and whoever wins it I think will do so by one score."

(In an interview with Johnny Watterson)