Heaslip: Ireland can dent Wallaby World Cup hopes

MONDAY’S draw for the 2011 Rugby World Cup may have been met with delight in Australia but Jamie Heaslip is adamant that Ireland will have something to say about the Wallabies’ tournament hopes when they meet in Pool C.

Italy will join Australia and Ireland in the third of the four pools in three years’ time while further qualifiers from the Americas and Europe will join them in the months to come once the final raft of qualifiers are complete.

The Melbourne Age has described it as the “dream draw” while the Sydney Morning Herald labelled it the “best draw imaginable”.

Those views are based on the understanding that all pool results go according to the seedings which would see Australia finish top of Pool C and thus avoid both New Zealand and South Africa until the final, both of whom are expected to proceed to the quarter-finals unbeaten.

The Brisbane Courier-Mail believes such a scenario is a virtual given, and described the Australian pool as being “relatively easy”. Heaslip begs to differ.

“I saw (the pool) yeah, it’s a good draw,” said the Leinster forward. “Not exactly an easy draw. I heard someone say that Australia have already booked themselves in for a quarter-final or semi-final. We’re not going to take too kindly to that, that’s for sure.

“I’ll have to pull Chris Whitaker aside now and get the inside knowledge on it. I’ll see what Rocky (Elsom) thinks as well — I’ll have to make sure that he’s not leaving here on two legs.”

Aussie coach Robbie Deans doesn’t appear to share the general surge in optimism about their 2011 chances with the Kiwi insisting that the seventh Rugby World Cup will still prove to be the hardest of them all to win.

That has been echoed by Wallaby captain Stirling Mortlock who has pointed to two previous RWC meetings with Ireland where Australia won by just a single point.

Heaslip too was keen to talk respectfully about opponents they will be expected to overcome, in this case Italy who were statistically the second weakest of the four possible third-tier nations Ireland could have been paired with at the draw in London.

“It’s a tough draw. People might say whatever they want to say about Italy, but they’ve been a thorn in the side of everyone in the Six Nations. Look at the No. 8 (Sergio Parisse), he was nominated for World Player of the Year.

“It just shows the class they have. And whoever else qualifies, the two other teams — we’ve seen the trouble they caused for Ireland in the last World Cup so by no means is it easy.”