Bordeaux is an unpretentious place. It's a condition exemplified beautifully by the patient looks on waiters' faces as the wait and watch wine-buff tourists accept a drop of whatever they've just ordered in their glass, swill it around and frown, push their nose to the rear rim and sniff before taking a sip. Hold it. Frown again. And then, only then, allowing the rest of the bottle to be poured.
The masses of Irish people gathered here have slipped right in, not unnoticed, because they are all in green shirts, but at least un-regarded. They're just another batch of tourists passing through. It's quite a feat for a city to pull off, given that there are thousands and thousands of Irish here, enough to fill three-quarters of the 37,000 capacity Stade Chaban Delmas.
The Cup is being taken mid-stride by the citizens. The circus has arrived in town at the same time, a huge big top sitting in the Places des Quinconces, complete with a zoo. It and the Cup are just more summertime diversions, things that happen around the city centre's Golden Triangle, around the Notre Dame, which after all, is not somewhere that has much to do with the inhabitants day-to-day lives.
"The Irish? We're delighted to have them." I'm told by my taxi driver, "they drink a lot, eat a lot, and they don't make any trouble, just have a good time".
Good-time folks. For some reason the Irish attract clichŽs like no other nation in Europe. It's a phenomenon that has been running-on ever since weak-kneed poets started banging on about the Celtic twilight.
Plucky and brave, jovial and good-hearted. I've no idea what prompts these notions, and I'm not immune to them myself.
With regards to the rugby team, that stereotype is less apt now than it has been at any point in recent history. With England, sorry, forlorn England, in such a muddle, Ireland are the outstanding team among the home nations, and have been for the last four years.
More than any of its predecessors, this tournament is threatening to make a mockery of European rugby in comparison to the Tri-Nations sides. The onus is on Ireland to make a partial redress in the balance. And their team is certainly capable of doing that: they have a gilt-edged back division, which is complimented by a world-class second row, and while a more pedestrian front three and back-row the stop them from being considered a team who can really threaten the likes of New Zealand and South Africa, they should at least be able to compete with them.
Yet there is a curious lack of confidence among the fans, and seemingly - as shown in the opening fixture against Namibia - the players. This weakness feeds in to those ridiculous ideas about the team being imbued with a touch of magic, their being a mercurial outfit capable of rising to any occasion with the benefit of a swift side-step from Brian O'Driscoll or Gordon D'Arcy. Ireland have been consistently ferocious and brilliant in recent times, far too good for their British competition.
What Ireland need now, and I say this from the position of someone well outside the camp, with little connection to the team, is self-belief. They will beat Georgia - by the time you read this they may already have done so - but they can expect a fierce confrontation in the scrum and the loose. Georgians have a natural affinity for forward play, born from an indigenous sport, Lelo, that they have played for centuries which is akin to English Shrovetide football. It won't be a romp, but nor does it need to be. Georgia are too good to be simply steamrollered, but not so good that Ireland shouldn't have them on the back foot throughout.
As everyone knows, Ireland have two incredibly tough group fixtures coming up, against France and Argentina. Enter either without conviction that they are the best team in the Six Nations, and they'll struggle. But anyone who has seen them play in that competition since 2003 will know that they are capable of beating both. Do that, and a quarter-final against Italy or Scotland should provide a clear path to the semi-finals, which would be the first time they have made it that far.
And that is exactly the kind of performance that this Irish team, the best they have ever taken to a World Cup, should be capable of. For Ireland it is time to cast off the clichŽs and dispel the myths. For once, much as they might have you believe it, they're not underdogs, but the best that the home nations have to offer, play as well as they are capable of, and they'll be hogging the back pages of the national press long after England have packed up and gone home, tails between their legs.
