Keith Wood: Ireland’s World Cup record ‘horrible and embarrassing’

Keith Wood has described Ireland’s repeated failure to progress beyond the World Cup quarter-finals as “a horrible and embarrassing statistic”.

But with 99 days to go before rugby union’s eighth global spectacular kicks off at Twickenham, Ireland’s standing has arguably never been higher in a World Cup year.

They have won the last two RBS 6 Nations Championship titles under coach Joe Schmidt and also beaten southern hemisphere heavyweights South Africa and Australia during his reign, suggesting they could finally mount a concerted challenge on the World Cup stage.