As things turned out, Bristol tackled everything that moved; Montferrand dropped the ball or passed it towards either the touchline or the ground; and on the day Felipe Contepomi showed himself to be a more accomplished outside-half and kicker than Merceron.I missed Biarritz v Northampton and B?ers v Neath (the latter because it was not being shown on any of the channels that I can receive). Both the visiting sides, by all accounts, put up a convincing show and could have won their matches with a bit of luck on their side.Together with the French clubs, the successes of the competition so far have been the Irish provincial sides. But we – commentators on television, correspondents in the press and supporters on the touchline or in the stand – regard them quite differently.Nor do we draw a distinction between, on the one hand, Ulster from the United Kingdom and, on the other, Munster and Leinster from the Republic of Ireland We do not look on them as foreigners as we do the French. If the final, to be held in Dublin, turns out to be between, say – this is not a prediction but an example – Leinster and Toulouse, there is little doubt about where we shall be expected to direct our support.

I shall remain neutral, with a sneaking sympathy for Toulouse. Having watched Leinster’s annihilation of Swansea on Saturday, I think they may still be a reasonable bet. But I still do not know whether they put up 50 points because they were very good or because Swansea were very bad. You would never have thought that, in bygone days, they had beaten both Australia and New Zealand. At half-time a vaguely familiar face, announced as Swansea’s director of rugby and addressed as “Richard” appeared on our screens It was Richard Moriarty. I shall say no more.Altogether the Welsh clubs have been having a dreadful time. While Neath and Llanelli have been unlucky the other three clubs have been unable to do anything right There is one tiny morsel of hope.

In recent Heineken competitions, the Welsh clubs such as Cardiff and Swansea have performed promisingly in the early stages, only to fall away badly towards the end, leaving only Llanelli to carry on the fight They are still in with a chance, and so are Neath But I would not put any money on either of them.. The French Rugby Federation has secured the promotional services of Zinedine Zidane as part of its bid for the 2007 World Cup, but the Tricolores could pull in Emmanuelle Beart and Isabelle Huppert and still find themselves outseduced. England, in the shape of the thrustingly up-front Rugby Football Union, have tabled a rival 50-page proposal – complete with 134 pages of appendices, a flashy video and a CD-Rom – that will, according to the money men, generate profits of at least £175m: enough hard cash to give the sport a chance of realising its global ambitions. Twickenham wants to see two tournaments rather than one: an ?te competition for the big boys, and a parallel junior jamboree for everyone else. While the All Blacks and their ilk could expect to play at Twickenham, Old Trafford and Villa Park, the good rugby folk of Chile and Papua New Guinea would have to be content with the Broadway Ground in Walsall and The Haberden in Bury St Edmunds. There again, they would travel for free and have themselves some fun.Until yesterday, the French were considered clear favourites to win this boardroom round of “Le Crunch”: they have superb venues, a wildly enthusiastic rugby public and some very decent red. But the booze issue cuts both ways on the far side of the Channel: the government’s ban on alcohol advertising is not exactly helpful when brewers and distillers are among the most obvious targets for the Rugby World Cup marketeers.