France captain Thierry Dusautoir gets a chance to repeat his finest performance when they take on defending champions New Zealand in the World Cup quarter-final on Saturday.
The 33-year-old flanker put in a massive 38 tackles against the All Blacks at the same stage and the same Millennium Stadium venue in 2007 to help knock out the favourites 20-18.
As a comparison, New Zealand as a team only put in 36 tackles in a huge French defensive effort.
He also put in a man-of-the-match performance against the All Blacks in France’s courageous 8-7 loss in the 2011 final on their opponents home turf.
“Next week there is a big challenge waiting for us,” he said of the quarter final after his side had suffered their first defeat of the tournament a 24-9 loss to Six Nations champions Ireland to consign them to the runners-up spot in Pool D.
“But we are going to look at what was not 100 percent today and go into the next match with a lot of appetite.”
The Irish — now unbeaten in five meetings with France under coach Philippe Saint-Andre drawing two and winning three — will play an impressive Argentina side in Cardiff on Sunday.
The Argentinians have a good record against the Irish in the World Cup having beaten them twice — in a quarter-final play-off when Ireland were coached by Warren Gatland in 1999 and then in the pool stage in 2007 when they went out at the first hurdle.
The Irish, who eked out a 16-15 win over the Pumas in the 2003 edition, are yet to appear in the semi-finals of the tournament.
Gatland will hope his woeful win record of two wins in 29 matches as Wales coach against the southern hemisphere powers improves next Saturday against South Africa.
Wales’ 15-6 defeat to Australia on Saturday consigned them to a Twickenham date with the Springboks with the small consolation that they beat the two-time world champions 12-6 last November.
On the other side of the draw, Scotland will play Australia, also at Twickenham, on October 18.
However, their inspirational captain Greig Laidlaw can remember beating the Australians. He kicked all their points in a memorable 12-6 win in 2012 — Scotland’s first in Australia since 1982.
Quarter-finals:
Saturday, October 17
At Twickenham (1500 GMT)
South Africa v Wales
At Millennium Stadium, Cardiff (1900 GMT)
New Zealand v France
Sunday, October 18
At Millennium Stadium, Cardiff (1200 GMT)
Ireland v Argentina
At Twickenham (1500 GMT)
Australia v Scotland