Andy Farrell: 'We'd have the ambition to win a World Cup, otherwise what's the point?'

Fixtures and venues for Ireland's 2027 Rugby World Cup games will be confirmed in early February

Ireland have never won a knockout game at a World Cup.Pic: ©INPHO/Gary Carr

Forget the pool draw, never mind winning a knockout match for the first time, Andy Farrell has reaffirmed that Ireland’s aim when they go to Australia for the 2027 Rugby World Cup will be to capture the Webb Ellis Cup.

The Ireland head coach was speaking in the wake of Wednesday’s pool draw in Sydney where his team was placed alongside Scotland for the third tournament in a row, as well as Uruguay and Portugal.

Ireland have never won a knockout game at a World Cup despite having featured at every tournament since its inception in 1987. The advent of a round of 16 tie should make for an easier knockout tie - should they win out in Pool D.

If that’s the bottom line, then Farrell is looking at the summit.

“Well, obviously I back myself and the rest of the coaches and the players and all the staff to go as far as we'd all hope. We'd have the ambition to win a World Cup, otherwise what's the point? To ensure that everyone else feels the same way.” 

Planning for the event has long started with Farrell sitting in on a two-hour meeting on the tournament immediately after the draw. Fixtures and locations will be confirmed in early February, but little else stands still.

The evolution of the team, he said, is ongoing. Always.

He recalled the Emerging Ireland squad that was chosen for a tour to South Africa in late 2022, how people suggested it had come too late for those players to have a go at the following World Cup, and how half-a-dozen made the pre-tournament training squad.

“It just shows you how quickly things can change and obviously there's a plan of what you think could happen along the way, but you move with that as you go as well.” 

Much the same thinking permeated his take on possible routes and permutations.

Finish runners-up in Pool D and they would likely face France in that round of 16. Win it and it’s a third-placed team and a likely shot at Argentina in the last eight. And with the high probability that France, New Zealand and South Africa would be on the far side of the draw.

“You can try and second-guess it and think all different permutations are going to work out in a certain way, but we know that a World Cup always throws up these type of things, that's why we love it so much.

“You're always looking at which side of the draw you could come out, but if you don't look after your own side of things first and foremost then things could slightly happen a little bit differently. Everyone else in our pool is 100% going to be thinking in the same way.”