How good are South Africa, New Zealand and, yes, Scotland? 

There are plenty of questions that will be answered over the next few weeks. The new Rugby World Cup podcast for Irish Examiner subscribers begins to answer some of them in the first episode of the special series. 

Simon Lewis in Bordeaux and Brendan O'Brien, who's tracking Ireland's group rivals in France, are joined by La Rochelle head coach Ronan O'Gara and his fellow Examiner Sport columnist Donal Lenihan for a very enjoyable conversation on the eve of the big kick-off.