All three have already left their mark, but Mehrtens has yet to face a back row of Scotland’s pace and ingenuity “We all know we have to step up our game,” Kronfeld said “Scotland are going to be a problem all right. They’ve got to be treated with respect.”The All Blacks, who conceded three tries against Ireland, were most concerned about their defence. Noel Murphy, the Ireland manager, thought that they were not as awesome as previous New Zealand teams The All Blacks can be relied upon to move up a gear Whether Scotland can do the same is doubtful. “I think we can compete with them up front,” Peter Wright, the Boroughmuir prop, said, “and from that basis anything can happen.”The most revealing statement was probably made by the All Blacks’ captain, Sean Fitzpatrick “The party,” he said, “is just beginning.”. STEVE BALE

reports from Johannesburg
Terry Kingston will demand a generous measure of the spirit that disconcerted the All Blacks a fortnight ago when his team play France in today’s World Cup quarter-final in Durban, though the likely outcome is the same: another, quite possibly glorious, Irish failure.”We took a lot of confidence from the New Zealand game,” the captain said yesterday.

“Going on to the field, I remember saying it’s no point trying to contain the All Blacks; we’ve got to go out and beat them. Our attitude will have to be exactly the same against France.”The one slight problem with this is that, manfully though they fought, Ireland still lost 43-19 – which would be comfortably the worst Irish defeat by the All Blacks but for the 53-9 trouncing in 1992.But at least they had given the Blacks some cause for unease – which is more than could be said of the Welsh – and to go on and win a quarter-final place is a triumph in its own right. From here on in, though, it is straw-clutching time or, as Kingston put it: “If we are to beat France, it’s going to have to be one of our best performances ever.”Remembering the 1991 quarter-final when they lost at the last gasp to Australia, it is just about feasible. On the other hand, the effect on the ever-changeable French mood of their own last-gasp effort in beating Scotland last Saturday, and so avoiding New Zealand, is bound to be beneficial.Which is ominous for the Irish. Guy Laporte, the French manager, began the tournament by pointing out that his own players caused him far greater concern than any of their opponents and the fascination of King’s Park will be less to do with Ireland than with whether the manager’s concern is any longer justified.If anything, the problem for Laporte and Pierre Berbizier, the coach, is whether their team will have lurched to the opposite extreme after beating the Scots. Berbizier has been doing his best to remind them that the Irish should not be taken lightly. “The World Cup is a special occasion and they will give it all they have,” he said.

“We saw them give New Zealand a hard time and we recall they nearly beat Australia in the quarter-finals of the last World Cup.”For a direct form-line, we need look back no further than March when France won 25-7 in Dublin. As they did so without impressing, it shows how poor Ireland were, though French superiority was based on a strong scrum and line-out, and these are two areas where the Irish have done surprisingly well here.But it is 12 years since they defeated France and there is no reason beyond the illogical to anticipate the end of that dismal sequence unless it is the unpredictable effect of simply being in a World Cup quarter- final. “The occasion will get to everybody,” Noel Murphy, the Ireland manager, gasped.. Marlon Adams wears an Irish team jersey, drinks Guinness, talks rugby and has learnt the words to the new green anthem, Ireland’s Call “I sing it from the heart,” Adams said “I feel I’m part of the squad. They make me feel welcome.”

Adams is one of a host of South African rugby officials who volunteered their services for the World Cup. An executive member of the Transvaal RU, he put his name down to be a baggage master or liaison officer “I was eager to work for any team in any capacity,” he said He got the job of assistant baggage master to Ireland. “Black people have previously been denied such opportunities,” Adams said.
A coloured who was born in Cape Town, he moved to Johannesburg – “anybody who wants a good job goes to Johannesburg” – 18 years ago and is the chairman of Eldorado RFC from a township of 250,000 people.

“Despite its name, it is a sub-economic area with high unemployment, violence and crime.” Eldorado is one of only two black clubs in the Transvaal RU.”We are rugby people,” Adams said. “We have been playing rugby for over 100 years and the whites never thought we’d get organised. We are as good as anybody, if not better.” Three years ago, when the South African Rugby Board merged with the South African Rugby Union, Eldorado joined the previously all-white Transvaal Union.In its first season in the Transvaal President’s League Eldorado’s record was: played 20, lost 20. “We recruited five white players and then our record was played 20, won 16,” Adams said. “This year we lost three of the five whites because we don’t have the funds to reimburse them.

We’ve had to start all over and we’ve managed to get some good black players from Cape Town. I’ve written to more than 20 companies asking for sponsorship and not one has replied. Our income comes from selling beer and hot dogs.”Eldorado runs four teams and Adams is the stand-off for the thirds. “We are coached by a white Afrikaner and we need some white forwards to compete against these big Afrikaners We always used to get beaten up We don’t play dirty We have a natural flair and we run the ball all the time. Everybody loves to play against us and we have a choir that sings from beginning to end. As a black team we would be a dream to market.”John Robbie, the former Ireland scrum-half who is a broadcaster here, has promised to air Eldorado’s grievances.