Brutal World Cup draw holds no fear for Ireland, says James Lowe

Andy Farrell's men have been put on the difficult side of the draw with the top five teams in the world all in either Pool A or Pool B.

The Irish have the Springboks, Scotland and a dangerous Tonga side in their group and, if they get through that, New Zealand or hosts France lie in wait in the quarter-finals.

It is a ludicrous state of affairs with those teams paying the price for World Rugby doing the draw too far out from the global tournament.

For an Ireland outfit that have never reached the World Cup semi-finals it is brutal situation, but Lowe has looked at it in a typically light-hearted fashion.

"It's a bit of craic isn't it? You're going to have to beat them along the way somewhere," he told Off the Ball.

"To make it out of the pool is obviously the first battle and then the crossover game with either France or New Zealand.

"Look, it's exciting but we've got to be prepared for absolutely everything, but we're in a good place to put our best foot forward. Come September we'll jump at the opportunity."

Back five forward Tadhg Beirne echoed Lowe's comments, with Ireland's immediate focus simply about qualification from their pool.

"Our group is obviously very tough. If we can get out of that, we'll go from there," Beirne said.

"There's a lot of teams that are capable of winning this World Cup and it's certainly going to be an exciting one."

Ireland are one of the favourites to lift the Webb Ellis Cup following an outstanding couple of years under Farrell.

They are the number one ranked side in the world after a landmark series victory over New Zealand in 2022, an unbeaten November and a Six Nations Grand Slam triumph earlier this year.

"You do have to take confidence from those moments. In New Zealand, we bounced back and then went through November unbeaten before doing the Grand Slam," Beirne added.

"They're huge, huge achievements and you've got to take those with you to the World Cup, but it's a different kind of pressure. You don't have two weeks on, one week off in a World Cup, it's back-to-back-to-back.

"We're going to depend massively on that whole squad. Everyone's going to have to take confidence that we're going to be able to do it."