Ireland primed to shake off the rust against Canada

He seems to get better with age and has it all. The retirement of O’Driscoll was meant to signal the end of an era.

With Italy and France set to face each other on Saturday as well, this is a ideal chance for Ireland to build up a head of steam over their fellow Pool D rivals, so nothing other than an emphatic win will do on this occasion.

“So that’s hugely exciting, and I don’t take anything for granted whatsoever”.

For Joe Schmidt, the task now is to manage both the minds and the bodies of his entire squad.

“We don’t normally give as much ball back as we did”.

Tomas Mulholland (21), from Rostrevor, said: “The Canada match will be like a home game for us because there’s not too far to travel”.

“We saw that eight years ago with the Namibians and the Georgians”.

Fitzgerald, usually on the wing, has played often enough at No. 12 for his Leinster province for Schmidt to feel comfortable.

How has it worked so well?

That tendency has been less apparent under Schmidt who, in parallel with making Ireland better in how they play the game, has forced them to become mentally smarter.

Canada has had two pre-World Cup exhibition games this month since crossing the Atlantic.

That’s just about as strong a team as you can find.

The rugby World Cup is now acknowledged as the third largest global sporting event in terms of interest and economic impact, surpassed only by the Summer Olympics and Federation Internationale de Football Association soccer World Cup. But listen – we realise that expectation is there.

“They say good luck against Ireland, but with a [knowing] smile”.

He agrees that while Schmidt has wielded the axe on some favourites, it breeds a situation where players know they have to rise to the challenge. At the outset, you look at the group and think it doesn’t look as hard as one with Australia, England and Wales, for example.

“He can bring his own individual game to the party as well”.

The Penny, formaerly known as the Penny Farthing, is a beer house near the Clifton Triangle offering the Rugby World Cup alongside a large list of drinks, from beers, ciders and lager, to wines and even barista-style coffee.

“You learn more from a loss than a win”.

The only catch is that we would like to film all the highs and lows of your viewing experience to show just what Irish supporters go through while following their team. It’s not your traditional Canadian team, who basically are capable of scaring anybody on any given day. So I would worry for Canada at the moment.

How have Ireland changed since then?

Aussie-themed bar Walkabout, which underwent a major upgrade previous year, will be showing the world cup games through September and October. This time I believe they will. This time the whole country believes we’ll triumph, but we have been wrong before. “We have to make sure that we work together and reach the final stages with some energy left because that is when the match will be won”.

The Castaway Wanderers of Oak Bay have provided a healthy dollop of players to the Canadian World Cup effort with Ciaran Hearn starting the opener in centre, Hubert Buydens at prop and Ray Barkwill as hooker. Does that make a big difference?

Pritchard has one more season on his club contract with Bedford. He hopes to get into coaching after that. Ireland’s biggest enemy, therefore, will be complacency.