Argentina: one-shot wonders or serious contenders for the semi-finals? Beating Ireland in a playoff and then moving into their palatial country-house base at Lucan may have been almost as easy as downing a pint of the black stuff.
Seeing off France in tomorrow's knees-up at Lansdowne Road will be a different kettle of snails altogether, one that the majority of neutrals believe is beyond the Pumas.
Exactly how credible the Argentine challenge will be depends on the success of their confrontational Kiwi coach Alex Wyllie in persuading his players that the gap in quality is far narrower than the critics imagine. The school-of-hard-knocks management style that has long been Wyllie's trademark certainly appears to have put iron in the soul of the Pumas since they lost their World Cup opener against Wales.
The French, who flew into Dublin only last evening, will be greatly relieved they do not have to face Ireland in front of a capacity home crowd after squeezing out a one-point win here in last season's Five Nations.
Argentina, though, have a deadly weapon in Gonzalo Quesada, the competition's top scorer whose 23 points against the Irish took his total to 86. Given half a chance he will punish indiscipline with ruthless efficiency.
"The impact of this win over Ireland is the best thing that has happened to us within the past couple of years," said Quesada. "But the worst thing we can do now is to say we're happy to end it like this and go back home having calmly accepted defeat by the French.
"It has mainly been improved discipline and better organisation that has carried us this far. That has helped build the kind of team character that was never there before. It's not just a matter of playing strategies but also the important details like what it means to be a team off the field."
Wyllie, who will coach Clontarf after his World Cup commitments with Argentina end, believes the Pumas have to overcome the mental hurdle of not having beaten France for seven years.
"We've achieved more than in any previous World Cup; anything else will be a bonus," he declared. "France have had plenty of rest in their build-up but there are good and bad things about a long break.
"At the moment I believe the French are a bit vulnerable; hopefully this is a good time to play them. Still, you always know they're capable on their day of playing like the best team in the world. One important thing for us is the way our defence has performed, giving away fewer tries than most sides in the competition.
"We've copped some criticism for relying too much on Quesada but you cannot kick goals from within your own half. At least you're on the attack when you do kick goals; to get within range usually means you're not too far away from getting a score anyway."
France, without key forwards in Christian Califano and Fabien Pelous through suspension, have made four changes from the side that beat Fiji. The most significant could be the recall of the experienced scrum-half Fabien Galthie, while the wing Xavier Garbajosa comes in at full back.
"Eventually we'll have the feeling that we're part of this unique competition," said Jo Maso, the team manager, with the enigmatic air of a man who believes the World Cup has so far failed to excite the French.
The Teams
ARGENTINA: I Corletto; G Camardon, E Simone, L Arbizu (capt), D Albanese; G Quesada, A Pichot; R Grau, M Ledesma, I Fernandez Lobbe, A Allub, S Phelan, R Martin, G Longo. Replacements: M Contepomi, F Contepomi, N Fernandez Miranda, M Ruiz, L Ostiglia, A Canalda, M Scelzo.
FRANCE: X Garbajosa, P Bernat-Salles, R Dourthe, E Ntamack, C Dominici, C Lamaison, F Galthie, C Soulette, R Ibanez (capt), F Tournaire, O Brouzet, A Benazzi, M Lievremont, C Julliet, O Magne. Replacements: U Mola, S Glas, S Casttaignede, A Costes, D Auradou, P De Villiers, M Dal Maso.
