Thank God the World Cup starts in less than 24 hours for with it will come the cessation of the abundant assurances from every team participating that;

• We’re in good shape
• We have the right balance
• We have no fear
• We’ve prepared well
• The mix is good
• The early loss helped us focus

What a load of old toadstools! I can’t wait for the inevitable shock defeats (Go Ireland!) to rock the socks off the platitude progenitors and bring some realism to the press conferences.