Irish sharks must devour group minnows

TOMORROW’S Pool A game in Sydney has always looked like Ireland’s World Cup turkey-shoot, and any reasonable assessment of Namibia’s performance against an Argentine second string only reinforces the perception.

While the Africans were occasionally gritty and always determined during their thrashing by the Pumas on Tuesday, they showed very little else of substance and, at times, their attempts at going forward were naive beyond belief.

Of the minnows in this fifth rugby world cup, only Uruguay and Georgia match their spectacular inadequacies. As amateurs playing a professional sport, they truly look out of place on the world stage.