Auckland, North Island

They say there's a thin line between genius and madness. If that's true, France coach Marc Lievremont has spent this World Cup tip-toeing along it like his compatriot Philippe Petit in Man On Wire.

On one hand he has steered an underperforming French side to their first World Cup final in 12 years. On the other he has done so while spitting out the sort of insults that normally start wars.

In a moment, the question of whether the latter has made the former possible. Before then, a little reminder of Marc's most barking bon mots.

To French journalist after pool stage loss to All Blacks: "Go to hell with your question. I really regret the detestable atmosphere that we have at these press conferences."

After pool stage defeat by Tonga: "I thought I had experienced everything in terms of shame. But this time around, it's been an extremely violent feeling again. Each missed pass, each missed tackle, I took them as a deep personal failure."

On his attempts at team-building: "I would have liked for us to gather around a few drinks yesterday, to talk, to share thoughts, to tell each other that it's a beautiful adventure, all things considered. And I was disappointed.

"At the end of the press conference, I got us some beers to release the pressure - and we all split in different directions. I saw players with their agent on the eve [of the match] and after the game instead of regrouping as a team. It's a kind of disappointment."

After defeat by Italy in the Six Nations: "I'm at a bit of a dead end. I feel like I'm responsible for this, but the players lack courage. There is a certain cowardice. When I talk to them, nothing happens.

"They betrayed us, they have betrayed me and they have betrayed the French national team shirt. Do you really think I told them to play like that? They weren't asked to walk on the moon."

On former England hooker Mark Regan: "He was ridiculous and grotesque. His behaviour is offensive and against the rules. He is a clown."

After beating England in the quarter-finals: "Yesterday we had the same players out there as in Wellington against Tonga, except that they grew a big pair of balls."

After some players went out drinking following their win over Wales: "I told them they are a bunch of spoiled brats. Undisciplined, disobedient, sometimes selfish. Always complaining, always moaning. It has been like this for four years."

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When New Zealand run out on Sunday for their first World Cup final in 16 years, the posher seats in the Eden Park grandstands will be packed with All Black greats from down the years - Colin Meads, David Kirk, Wayne Shelford, Tana Umaga and so on.

But there is one legendary figure in New Zealand rugby folklore who has not been invited. Even if he had been, he wouldn't have come.

The story of Keith Murdoch is one of sport's more extraordinary epics: the hard-drinking, hard-punching loner who, hours after scoring a match-winning try for his country, was involved in an incident that resulted in him becoming the only All Black to ever be expelled from a tour. He then ran away in disgrace into the Australian Outback, never to see his team-mates again.

It is also, with New Zealand on the brink of equalling the greatest moment in their rugby history, a cautionary tale of what sporting fame can do to ordinary men caught up in the whirl of media hoopla and public expectation.

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Eden Park, Auckland

"Four more years!" roared the black-shirted celebrants around the stadium as the final whistle blew on New Zealand's semi-final steamrollering, revelling in the chance to ram George Gregan's famous taunt back down the throats of the vanquished Australia team.

You can understand the Kiwi delight, but other numbers made more sense - the 16 years they have waited to reach a World Cup final, the 24-year gap since their only victory and now, after this clinical, crushing win, the seven days that surely separate them from their second.

For all the talk of a trans-Tasman tussle to match the Wallabies' wins of 2003 and 1999, this was a lesson in controlled rugby, the 20-6 margin 17 points shy of what it could have been had the All Blacks landed all their eminently kickable opportunities (four penalties, one conversion, one drop-goal attempt, all missed).

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