Let’s stand and deliver

AT long last, it’s time for the talking to stop and the real action to begin.

Ireland’s World Cup challenge gets under way in this pleasant, understated city tomorrow when Keith Wood and his players take on Argentina in a seminal rugby moment for both nations.

This one will dictate which goes through to the quarter-finals in two weeks. It will also demonstrate whether Eddie O’Sullivan’s gamble in plumping for an untried back-row formation was an inspired move or whether his Argentine counterpart, Marcelo Loffreda, holds the upper-hand where planning is concerned.