KEY POINTS:
There Might be a family feud if Ireland are the team to meet New Zealand in the quarterfinals of the World Cup.
Ireland fullback Geordan Murphy, 29, is engaged to British singer-songwriter Lucie Silvas.
However Silvas has a New Zealand father who is a serious All Black fan. The 30-year-old songstress wrote hit singles for UK Pop Idol runner-up Gareth Gates and Liberty X before hitting the big time with her multi-platinum album Breathe In.
Although Silvas was born in Scotland and raised on Clydebank she did spend some time in New Zealand as a child before moving permanently to the United Kingdom when she was 13.
Around six years ago she met Murphy, who was playing with Leicester Tigers in the Zurich Premiership.
It was a case of right sport, wrong country for Silvas' father.
"My dad is a serious New Zealand supporter, but he may have to back down a little for Geordan's sake. Our family would like to see both sides do well, but first and foremost, we support Geordan," Silvas said before the Lions tour in 2005.
Murphy has an even deeper New Zealand connection. In 1995 he went on a four-month high school exchange from Dublin to Auckland.
"Four of us ended up at Auckland Grammar and as a kid it was amazing," Murphy is reported as saying. "Rugby really is a religion in New Zealand. I remember that, every day after school, the changing rooms would be crammed with kids who were all ultra-serious. Instead of thinking they should lighten up I became ultra-serious myself. I wanted to fit in but I also got a real kick out it."
Meanwhile, the All Blacks have made a major impression with the ladies of Lyon, who have taken a fancy to the manly culture of the team. According to the metropolitan newspaper, Lyon Capitale, the haka as performed by such homme massif (big men), has all the ingredients to form quite some fantasy.
The women of Lyon, apparently, have been hanging out for the arrival of some real men in their lives.
The city is very much a bastion of soccer and the superstars and pin-up boys tend to be in the David Beckham mould that appeals more to the teen market.
The All Blacks are stoking the fires of a generation of women who remember the days when men were revered for their chiselled jaws, stubble and throbbing biceps.
Having gathered plenty of female opinion, Lyon Capitale reports that most women felt the All Blacks carried a sense of power and indestructibility they found sexy. The size of the players and the emotion they showed when performing the haka was rated a major turn-on with French women seemingly in awe of men who make them feel safe. "I love the All Blacks, even though it is likely they will beat France," said one woman, before All Blacks Carl Hayman, Rodney So'oialo and Chris Masoe made an appearance at an adidas shop in central Lyon on Friday.
