Hence, the move for Dan. Bringing a legendary 10 into the set-up will create an interesting proposition at out-half. For Russell, Dan’s arrival is both difficult and brilliant. If Russell keeps producing, he is the guy playing at 10 every week, but there’s an obvious and looming presence sitting on the Racing bench. The coaching staff knows it has an ace in the hole. Hmmm, who could we introduce to shake this up…?

The reality from Russell’s point of view is that it cranks up the pressure, and from a team and organisation standpoint, that’s a lovely bit of creative tension to have going on. Carter is Mike Tyson, a giant presence, and one you’d rather have in your corner than in the opposite one. Racing entertain Toulouse again in the Heineken Cup quarter final at the end of next month, by which time Dan will be well up to speed. His return is necessary. It’s been a while since Racing were outside the top six.

Maybe he could take out French citizenship while he’s at it! Les Bleus go with their 11th different half-back partnership in less than two years tomorrow against Scotland. I rate Romain Ntamack, but only in terms of what France has available at 10. When you measure him up against the other test out-halves, he has so much more to go. He’s not the regular first-choice 10 for Toulouse. Antoine Dupont is only 22, but his second-half performance against England was the best on the park, English players included. He looks like he could be there for a while at nine, notwithstanding France’s selection eccentricities. There’s a lot of good nines in France — Machenaud, Parra, Serin — but now that the ex-Castres talent has fully recovered from a cruciate issue, France has decided he can be the future.

People ask about the difference between club and test level. The events in round two at Twickenham underlined the gap. The step up is significant. The speed of the game is such that a player’s inability to survive is cruelly exposed. The partnership of Clermont’s Morgan Parra and Camille Lopez is tried and trusted at club level — Parra has always been a great manager of the game — but they struggled, painfully, to get up to the pace of playing England at Twickenham.

Dupont and Ntamack have not started a competitive game together at half-back for Toulouse, but France are at rock bottom. They only way is up. They want to try and build the future around these guys. In French heads, the ‘future’ is rounds three, four and five of the Six Nations, but the pairing needs each of the World Cup warm-up games as well. The absence of a consistent thread in the French thought process must change. The players believe everything to be on a game-by-game process at the moment, and that’s not good for anyone. Results are one thing, but France has to build a game plan with or without Jacques Brunel. If they lose at home to Scotland tomorrow — which France hasn’t done since 1999 — what’s the thought process then in the context of the World Cup? Scotland are good opposition for them this weekend. Without Finn Russell, it’s a huge opportunity for some French momentum. They are beyond desperate.

However, if Gregor Townsend engineers a win, it will be hard afterwards for Brunel getting down from his seat in the Stade de France stands. There will be booing… there will be seat covers flying.

Either way, I would anticipate some sort of post-Six Nations statement on what precisely is happening up to and after the World Cup. French rugby isn’t shy of revolt. Previous World Cups have shown that. Let’s be accurate here: In the first 40 minutes against Wales, when they led 16-0, France brought plenty to the table, but the whole situation has destabilised dramatically since that opening night. Losing at home to a Scotland side without its key playmaker would lead anyone to think that there has to be some sort of a shift.

No such issues in Christchurch with the Crusaders. Our head coach Scott Robertson has just signed up until 2021, which some have taken to assume he won’t be considered for the All Blacks head coach role post-World Cup. That’s false. He is on an NZRU contract, just as any of the provincial head coaches at home are on IRFU contracts. All that means is that Razor remains in the employ of the New Zealand Union and, if he is the preferred candidate to replace Steve Hansen, the Crusaders would release him.

In the canteen this week at Rugby Park, we were discussing coaching models and how they have changed dramatically. Nobody here thinks about the next All Black coach, even if he’s part of the conversation around the table. It’s funny how irrelevant and abstract these issues seem when you are part of a day-to-day process. No one here thinks of the Super Rugby climax or the World Cup, much less who’s in charge afterwards. You get better or you get beaten, is the Crusaders mantra.

Players and coaches think in the here and now. You think Warren Gatland is thinking about his next job? His only focus is tomorrow evening against England in Cardiff. It’s the game of the championship. Because it’s the Millennium Stadium. Because England are the visitors. While everyone is talking about the French capitulation in the first round, there was a lot of mental strength involved from Gatland’s Welsh players, but even without Itoje and Mako Vunipola, I still think it’s 60-40 England. They’ve gone to a different level. Am I getting carried away? Perhaps, but the eyes don’t lie. Cardiff is Eddie Jones’ biggest competitive fixture ahead of the World Cup, and his players will want to continue putting down big markers. Incidentally, I expect August’s World Cup warm ups — especially England-Ireland and Ireland-Wales — to be anything but tea parties. There’s too much at stake. They will be tasty.

What do Ireland need in Rome on Sunday? A fluid performance. We didn’t hit our straps against England and Scotland. The benchmark of that night against the All Blacks remains. Devastating at the ruck, carrying hard, on the front foot. We haven’t seen that in the first two rounds of the championship. Ireland will conclude their Six Nations in Cardiff. Time to put down some big markers.