Sports Digest: Hopes are low for Ireland’s team in Rugby World Cup

World Cup debutant Jamie Heaslip has cast aside the doom and gloom

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Jamie Heaslip of Irish rugby team

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Sports Digest: Hopes are low for Ireland’s team in Rugby World Cup

World Cup debutant Jamie Heaslip has cast aside the doom and gloom that accompanied Ireland on their trek to New Zealand and insisted, “We’re not here to be second best.”

Declan Kidney’s side open their 2011 Rugby World Cup account against the U.S. in New Plymouth on Sunday with few expecting them to shake the trees.

A disastrous warm-up campaign has done little to instill confidence after four straight defeats to Scotland in Edinburgh, France in Bordeaux and Dublin and England at the Aviva in Dublin.

But Leinster giant Heaslip, ignored for the last World Cup disaster in France four years ago, refuses to buy into the negative equity theory as Ireland prepare to kick off their campaign against former coach Eddie O’Sullivan’s U.S. crew.

“We have not come here to be second best,” insisted Heaslip. “We are a fairly ambitious group of players and the squad that has come here, has come here to win.
“Saying you are going to win is a fairly ambiguous statement and you do need to put a little clarity on that.

“To win you have got to get to the final. To get to the final you have got to get to the semifinal.

“To get to the semis, you have got to come out of the quarters and to come out of the quarters you have got to come through your pool.

“It all boils down to game on against the U.S. next weekend and following on from there. Everything to do with this World Cup starts with the American match.”
History doesn’t bode well for Ireland ahead of a tough pool that features Australia, Italy and Russia as well as a U.S. side led by an Irish coach with a point of his own to prove.

The last World Cup was a nightmare from start to finish for O’Sullivan’s so called Golden Generation who fell flat on their face in France in 2007.

Likewise, Ireland’s erratic form in the warm-up games has done little for national morale at a time when the country needs a major sporting boost.

“We have moved on from 2007 and it is important to accept that,” insisted Heaslip ahead of Sunday’s early morning alarm call for rugby fans.

“If you are a player who dwells on a bad game then you are not going to last very long in this sport to be honest with you.

“When Declan Kidney came in, he wanted to get a really good squad together and I think he has achieved that with 30 really good players at this World Cup.

“The level of competition within the squad is high, we have pushed each other really hard in training and we will be ready next weekend.”

Their European rugby experiences will also stand to the Irish players on the world stage according to Heaslip, surrounded as he is by Heineken Cup winners from his own Leinster and Munster.

“We are kind of lucky in that the Heineken Cup is run in the same format as the World Cup and we have a lot of experience playing in that kind of competition every year,” claimed the big number eight.

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