Allez, jouer! Let’s get cracking on the greatest event in rugby. All across my country, people are getting their cockerels out in anticipation and learning the words of La Marseillaise. The mood is excellent, we are full of confidence after France did well in the warm-up games. Let’s pray that Argentina don’t puncture all this happiness in the opening match.

London may have won the Olympics, but Paris has the greater prize in my opinion. There is a buzz around the country about the World Cup. More than two million tickets have been sold and a poll has shown that 85 per cent of the population will follow the competition. For a few weeks, rugby may even be bigger than football.

Bernard Laporte, the France coach, and many of his players have been promoting it on television. Rugby is the fashion — and Sébastien Chabal has become the biggest French sex symbol since Brigitte Bardot!

This France team look fitter than ever. They may not be the best team to wear the blue jersey, but the players are very well drilled. In many ways they remind me of the England team before the 2003 World Cup. Nothing has been left to chance.

New Zealand have more talent individually, but every one of Laporte’s 30-man squad is worth his place. Believe me, there are eight desperately unlucky and very talented men who will not play in the first match, but Laporte will have to call on all of them at some point if France are to win the World Cup. You win World Cups with 30 men, not 15, and perhaps that is where France have the advantage over the other Six Nations countries: we have strength in depth.

I just hope that France do not let the occasion get to them. We respect Argentina. Many of their players are used to conditions in Europe and are first choice at some of the best clubs in the world. The likes of the Lobbe brothers, both at Sale Sharks, Agustín Pichot and Juan Martín Hernández, of Stade Français, and Felipe Contepomi, at Leinster, are world-class players.

But Argentina did not impress against Wales last month and they are carrying injuries. It will be daunting for them to play us in the Stade de France.

I am in Paris to cheer on France. Twelve years ago it was different. I was the France captain at the World Cup in South Africa, where, but for some bad decisions in the semi-finals, we could have been champions. But rugby has changed so much since those early days of professionalism. Perhaps on home soil, Raphaël Ibañez can lead France to their first title.

Just so long as they do not stumble on the first step. If all goes well, I plan to find a favourite bar in Paris tonight and celebrate the start of our World Cup journey. Allez, Les Bleus!