Paul McGinley is playing a blinder as Britain and Ireland captain at the Vivendi Trophy in Paris. So far, he's inspired a weaker team to lead Europe 6-4 after two days of foursomes.

He's left no stone unturned, as the saying goes. And no cliché unused, no matter how much he abhors them.

"To win again today was great, to be over 3-2 up, 6-4 overall; as a footballer would say, we are over the moon."

Will McGinley get his Ryder Cup captaincy chance?Normally a player who will machine gun 1000 words of quotes in five minutes, he was keeping mum on his strategy ahead of Saturday's greensomes. He insisted that there's a long way to go. A lot of water to go under the bridge. He's playing his cards close to chest because, "no matter where he [Bjorn] shuffles his pack, it's going to be strong and we are going to be up against it."

McGinley knows all the nicknames  (Dys, Rocky, GMac, Woody etc), he knows all the caddies and he knows all the tricks. He's like a cross between Ian Woosnam, a football manager and a steel trap.

Then there's the energy.

"We have got a real good bunch of guys," Ross Fisher said. "We are very confident in all our own abilities, and we are gelling really well as a team and enjoying it, a real enthusiastic, positive energy buzzing through the team room, and Paul is carrying that out. He is just so influential and he's got some great team talks. We are really fired up."

"I've listened to the caddies," McGinley said. "I've listened to their views and spoken to them privately, as well as with their player. I've encouraged the views of everybody involved in the team, players and caddies, very much so. I've put them all into the mesh, and plus, the bit of knowledge that I've put learned over the years, put that together and come out with a strategy and that's how we are going to win this. 

"So far it's gone well but there's a long, long way to go, we are a third of the way and halfway to go," McGinley said surreally.

Cue general hilarity and one of those big McGinley grins.

"I know that's not exact -- (laughter). I can just see the quote tomorrow, 'McGinley needs to go back to school.' Okay, just generalise, okay. Harrington would love that if he saw that (laughing). Thank you."