Herald rugby writer Wynne Gray discusses fertile World Cup topics every Tuesday with TAB RWC ambassador Richard Turner.
Mention Ireland's surge up the world rankings to coach Joe Schmidt, and he pulls out an outstanding vocal fend. Not that it's a no-go area.
He's geared up for every possibility as the focus on the eighth World Cup narrows towards the opening festivities this weekend at Twickenham before England play Fiji.
Ireland will hunker down 232kms to the west in Cardiff where they will begin their tournament against Canada before tests against Romania, Italy and France.
That match against France on October 12, also at Millennium Stadium, is likely to decide the finishing order of the top two sides in pool D. Asking Schmidt to mull over that proposition gets much the same response as inquiries about Ireland's ranking.
Since the 50-year-old career coach took over, Ireland have moved from ninth to third - they're narrowly behind Australia, who overtook them in the latest calculations. Doesn't that give him satisfaction?
"No, no, no," he starts. "It's not a piece of silverware. It is an intangible calculation and, as you can see from a look at the table, it is very tight there, too.
"It is probably more disconcerting to me than anything because it means you can't sneak into the tournament under the radar even if you'd like to."
Ireland were never going to sneak into this World Cup after successive Six Nations titles. They are a team on the rise who will be accompanied by stories about the lack of World Cup success of their predecessors. They have played in every tournament and are yet to win a quarter-final.
This will be a first World Cup for Schmidt and a last attempt for his senior lock and captain Paul O'Connell, two men who are as devoted to improvement as anyone in the game. They lead a squad with plenty of talent, a few questions about their scrum if Cian Healey is damaged and hopes that experienced first five-eighths Johnny Sexton will keep his nerve to inspire his backline.
Schmidt acknowledges the amount of work his players have done to level out the glitches in their form graph, which is reflected in their ranking.
"But the margins are so fine and the numbers so tight we could, with a poor performance, go down quickly to sixth," he says. "Apart from the All Blacks, who lead by such a big gap, the rest are massively cluttered in behind so there is nothing in it and maybe that is decisive in working out whether one team can beat another."
Dan Carter is tackled by Ireland's Jamie Heaslip during a 2012 test. photo / Greg Bowker
Expectation is mounting in Ireland. The team's ability to cope with and deliver in pressure matches has fuelled that anticipation. It's a natural reaction and usually happens before each World Cup whether a team had been performing strongly or not.
The squad have been able to separate themselves from a great deal of the conversation. They were able to immerse themselves in work at their training camps and shut themselves off from the daily commentaries in print or on radio or television networks about their impending challenges.
"It is not something which is right in front of us at those times," Schmidt said. "But come game-days, that's when you run into the reality of what it all means with the support, hope and belief there is about the side."
It then becomes a game alongside the game.
"If you are distracted by it, there is a danger because your anxiety levels will increase because of the expectations people have. We are keen to embrace those issues because you want to avoid being anxious.
"You can get nailed from some quarters for one slip-up but that is the weight of responsibility you have coaching a national rugby side. As much as possible, you have to meet your expectations and everybody else's."
Schmidt was fascinated to hear Richie McCaw talk about preparing the same way and with the same intensity so they could play the same way after the All Blacks' comprehensive 41-13 win over Australia at Eden Park. That saw an almost 30-point swing from Sydney to Auckland in seven days and with pretty much the same side.
"You have to try to minimize those sort of swings," Schmidt says. "You are always trying to manage a group of individuals, so they are all motivated and prepared for those two very brief 40-minute windows at the end of their week.
"It's what you have done during the week which shows how well you go at the weekend. There are so many variables you can't control, though. They are difficult to get right all the time and those are the vagaries coaches and players have to live with."
Schmidt honed those skills as an assistant coach at Bay of Plenty, the Blues and Clermont before he stepped up as Leinster head coach in 2010. Leinster won consecutive Heineken Cup titles under his guidance and in 2013 he took over as Ireland coach from Declan Kidney.
He's made such an impression - he recently signed a new deal until 2017 - that last week he was made an Irish citizen.
Schmidt has gained a reputation for being direct, making bold decisions and letting his players know exactly what is expected of them and where they stand. He explains that he tries to give clear, simple instructions so his men are well organised.
That means stacks of work for Schmidt early in a week when he goes through his gameplan, the opposition style and picks and trains his side. By the end of the week, he prefers to be a spectator while O'Connell and the senior men lead the group.
There's a part of Schmidt that prefers coaching a side every week throughout a season rather than the sporadic work for test coaches who often had to deal with players who need to regenerate after a long club season.
"That's when you find doing a lot of work with the players in their feet is counter-productive and you try to find a balance and time your run into a tournament," he says.
Schmidt felt for those culled from his extended World Cup squad. It was a duty but an unpleasant part of the job.
"However, it's no different for coaches," he then says. "We are at the whim of others, too. That is the nature of the sport."
