Euro rivals content to face Ireland

If Ireland were glad to have avoided the southern hemisphere’s big guns and dangerous sides in band three, it was clear the French and Italians were equally as relieved to have been pooled with the Irish.

Both the France captain Thierry Dusautoir, who came so close to lifting the Webb Ellis Trophy 14 months ago, and new coach Philippe Saint-Andre, could not disguise their feelings of getting a lucky break.

“It’s a European pool. It’s like being in a little Six Nations again.

“But it’s true that we can be happy to not be in a pool which is really hot,” Toulouse back rower Dusautoir said.

Saint-Andre, who took over from the controversial Marc Lievremont following the World Cup, added: “If you want to win a World Cup, you must beat all the teams. Pool A is really strong, with Australia, England and Wales, that’s really tough.

“Our objective was to finish top four in the IRB and we did this and now we play Ireland and we play Italy. We play them a lot in the Six Nations... so we are not in the death pool.”

Italian captain Sergio Parisse acknowledged the Azzurri’s poor record against Ireland, having not beaten them since 1997, but the number eight also said reaching a first quarter-final in his country’s history was a realistic objective.

“Year by year, the Italian team is improving and we are surely close to beating a big team,” Parisse said.

“We did against France a couple of years ago [2011] and we put the pressure on Australia [in November] so I think we have our chances in 2015. But it’s still a difficult pool for us, especially as we try and qualify for the first time in our history.

“When you see Wales and the pool with England and Australia, this is a good pool for us.”