Ireland may be forced to play scheduled Lansdowne games in France
Eddie O'Sullivan's side will definitely have to play France in Paris in the opening phase of the competition but their remaining pool games including the crunch encounter against Argentina are scheduled to take place on home soil.
Yesterday, however, the IRFU admitted that if they can't use Lansdowne Road, or a suitable alternative in the country, it will be left to the tournament organisers to designate venues for Ireland's games.
With RWC Ltd already receiving severe criticism for spreading games around Ireland, Wales and Scotland instead of just France, it appears more and more likely the games would be played at French venues.
An IRFU spokesman said: "The re-development of Lansdowne Road is in its explorative stages and it's still early days. There are a lot of legal issues still to get through and when they've been resolved, the next step is to appoint a manager for the project.
"Once that happens, we have to wait for the planning permission to get through and only then will we know if we'll be in a position to play games at Lansdowne Road during the World Cup. The initial date for the start of the re-development is 2006 but that could well be delayed. But if it isn't, and we can't find an alternative ... in Ireland, we'll have to go back to the RWC and the French Federation and see what they want to do.
"It won't simply be a situation where we say to them we want to play the games at the Millennium Stadium. It will be up to them at that stage where the games take place."
However, following the draw at the Mansion House yesterday, Eddie O'Sullivan said:
"We want to play our home games at home, simple as that. But to be honest, there's no point in me concerning myself with that. My job is to get the team ready and once we have a regulation size pitch marked out, we'll go out and play."
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