CHRIS HEWETT

As feats of the imagination go, the idea that Ireland might be heading towards a first World Cup final hardly puts us in Finnegans Wake territory.
Andy Farrell’s team have been handed a pig of a draw by the intellectual giants who concocted the pool stage three years early, but the Six Nations Grand Slammers are enthroned at the top of the global rankings for a reason – the reason being that they are currently better than everyone else.
Similarly, you do need to be an astrologer to foresee a dozen men of Leinster being named in any starting line-up for the Stade de France...