On Sundays, the A or B team will draw a crowd of nigh-on double figures as they take on other local villages or combinations thereof.

Behind one set of goalposts there rises a broad hill, edged on either side by woods in a kind of reverse Mohican. Behind the other lie fields braided with vines. In late summer, if the crop rotation deems it, the gap in the hedge by the halfway line is thronged with the faces of sunflowers.

But as much as they love their football in these parts, and as much as they have a national team that has won the FIFA World Cup twice and most recently done more than any other team in history to try and win it without actually winning it, the game that grips is rugby.

Sport is always a perfect default subject for conversation, particularly between random males of the species.

A scant knowledge of Toulon, and Jonny Wilkinson, with a side road back to Maurice Colclough, the British forward who made himself so popular captaining the somewhat fallen local giants Angouleme in the 1980s, when he was also a Grand Slam winner with England and a British Lion, have moved numerous casual conversations along in shops and cafes.

This morning the male vet who inoculated two of our animals turned out to be a rugby man - and one who, like so many of his fellow countrymen, was troubled by the cruel fate that has befallen France’s prince of scrum-halves, Antoine Dupont, and the resulting impact upon the morale and make-up of the team currently hosting the Rugby World Cup.

A medical consultation today is likely to determine whether the French captain, who suffered a fractured cheekbone and eye-socket in a wanton tackle from his Namibian counterpart in their group match on September 21, will be fit to return to the team for their quarter-final against the defending champions South Africa on Sunday (October 15).

If he does, he will doubtless be wearing some kind of protective cover.

But…South Africa. Of all teams for a comeback.

It’s a very difficult situation for the team, the coaches, the medical staff - and the supporters.

Our vet is conflicted. Dupont is a talisman. But would a return be reckless, not least for his own physical health?

He made another point - "it’s not good to be too reliant on just one player" - adding that the current scrum half and outside half have a very good understanding.

At this point I delved back into English sporting history to proffer the example of Jimmy Greaves, prince of goalscorers, who was injured in the last group match of the 1966 World Cup finals and, despite much anguish and debate, never made it back into a team that went on to win the trophy without him - with the forward who replaced him, Geoff Hurst, scoring a hat-trick in the final.

I’m not certain the power of this parallel was fully appreciated by our vet. But I did my best.

Meanwhile, France are girding themselves for what their head coach, Fabien Galthie, refers to as a second "World Cup final", following their meeting with New Zealand in the opening group match.

"For us, it's clearly a World Cup final playing against the reigning world champions, who have prepared for back-to-back titles,” he said. "The draw has done its job, it's up to us to do ours."

The draw has indeed done it’s job – badly, many believe. Many have been the utterances in recent days over the lopsided look of this World Cup, where we now have two quarter-finals – France v South Africa and New Zealand v Ireland – involving the four-top ranked teams. So these clearly should be semi-finals.

Those on the other side of the draw, including a scrappy England side, have benefited from easier progress.

There are two points to be made about the draw for the 2023 Rugby World Cup.

One of the main criticisms of it is that it took place so long ago, on December 14 in 2020, almost two years and nine months before the tournament began on September 8, and was therefore too remote from the current relative world rankings of the nations involved.

However, the time between the draw and the start of the 2015 Rugby World Cup was even longer – with the first taking place on December 3, 2012 for an event which started on September 18, 2015.

The gap between draw and tournament was almost as long for the 2019 Rugby World Cup - around two years and four months.

Given that similar concerns were not voiced during the last two editions, the time lapse cannot be held solely responsible for the clear disparity in strength between one side of the draw and the other.

That said, the FIFA World Cup finals manage to make the draw far closer to the events involved.

For instance, the draw for the World Cup that France so nearly retained in Qatar last year took place on April 1, 2022 - just over six months before the tournament began.

For the 2018 World Cup that began in Russia on June 14 the draw was made on December 1 in 2017.

If the football World Cup, involving 32 teams at the last count, can manage this, with why cannot the Rugby World Cup, currently involving 20 teams, do the same?

That is an overarching question that most French supporters will be giving only passing attention to today as they await news of their injured talisman. 

Come Sunday, however, that may not be the case.