Ireland received what can only be described as a reasonably favourable draw for the 1999 Rugby World Cup finals, in Cardiff yesterday.
Ireland's qualifying opponents next November will be Georgia and Romania and presuming all goes to form (a presumption the organisers have also made) then Warren Gatland's squad can expect to host a group containing Australia, the United States and the Romanians.
Ireland will play Georgia at Lansdowne Road next November 14th and Romania at the same venue on November 21st or 22nd, with Romania and Georgia meeting in Belfast on November 18th. The winners will be entitled Europe 1, and so host the aforementioned Group E.
The IRFU have been informed that the runners-up would become Europe six in the labyrinthine qualifying procedures, and thus qualify for the same group but with a different seeding.
Ireland's three games in the finals would thus all take place in Lansdowne Road, beginning with the Group E opener against the USA on Saturday, October 2nd at 7.00 p.m.
Ireland would then play Australia in Dublin on Sunday, October 10th at 3.00 p.m., reviving memories of the 1991 World Cup quarter-final at the same venue, before completing their programme against Romania on Friday, October 15th (7.00 p.m.).
The three other games in Group E will see Ravenhill host the clash between Australia and Romania on Sunday, October 3rd at 7.00 p.m.; the USA play Romania at Lansdowne Road on Saturday October 9th; and Thomond Park hosts the Australia v USA game on Thursday, October 14th at 5.00 p.m.
Irish team manager Donal Lenihan, speaking from Free State Stadium in Bloemfontein yesterday, said: "We're not too worried about the World Cup at this stage. We haven't given it too much thought but it's interesting to see that Australia will be the seeded team. We have always enjoyed playing Australia, remembering the last time we played them in the 1991 World Cup."
The chart laid out ahead of Ireland beyond the group stages is relatively favourable as well. Were Ireland to qualify for the knockout stages as the group runners-up, they would then face the best third-placed in the play-offs at Lens on Wednesday, October 20th (kick-off 7.00 p.m.). The reward would be a quarterfinal in Lansdowne Road on Sunday, October 24th (at 6.00 p.m.) against the Group C winners, which would almost certainly be France. The winners would face the All Blacks in one of two semi-finals at Twickenham.
Australia, as group winners, would qualify directly for the quarter-finals, where they would face Wales in Cardiff on Saturday, October 22nd for a semi-final against South Africa.
Certainly, in terms of avoiding the southern hemisphere big three until beyond the quarter-finals, Ireland seems to have had a marginally more promising draw than the other home unions.
For example, even as winners of Group D, Wales would run into Australia at the quarter-final stage, while Scotland, likely to finish runners-up in Group A behind the Springboks, would then need to win a play-off against the Group D runners-up to earn a quarter-final at home to the All Blacks.
Meanwhile England, unless they overcome the All Blacks in their second group game at Twickenham and so finish above New Zealand, face the prospect of a playoff at home to possibly Western Samoa, before running into the Springboks four days later in the quarter-finals. Thus to win the World Cup, they might have to beat the southern hemisphere big three on successive weekends - a task beyond them three years ago in South Africa.
If all goes to form, then a possible quarter-final line-up would be: Wales v Australia, Cardiff; England v South Africa, Paris; Scotland v New Zealand, Edinburgh; Ireland v France, Dublin. A possible semi-final line-up would then be: South Africa v Australia and New Zealand v France.
Twickenham hosts both semi-finals - on October 30th and 31st - with the November 6th final at Cardiff's new Millennium Stadium, venue of a spectacular opening ceremony and first match five weeks earlier.
Outside the established venues of Cardiff, Twickenham, Edinburgh, Dublin and Paris, 13 other locations have been chosen by Rugby World Cup organisers.
The All Blacks will begin their campaign, probably against Hong Kong at Bristol City's Ashton Gate ground on October 3rd next year, with Leicester, Huddersfield, Llanelli, Wrexham, Glasgow, Galashiels, Belfast, Limerick, Beziers, Bordeaux, Toulouse and Lens also greeting the World Cup bandwagon.
The 37-day tournament schedule allocates nine days for 30 pool fixtures in five groups. Pool winners reach the quarter-finals automatically, with five runners-up and best third-placed team contesting play-offs.
Play-offs take place at Twickenham, Murrayfield and Lens, with the quarter-finals in Cardiff, Paris, Dublin and Edinburgh.
"A lot of effort and thought have gone into this schedule, which is designed to maximise both the exposure and gate revenue of the tournament," said RWC chairman Leo Williams.
"We have tried hard to give each team the same rest time between matches - despite a 28 per cent increase in the number of games from 1995, the tournament is only one day longer."
The draw for the 1999 Rugby World Cup, to be hosted by Wales with matches in England, Ireland, Scotland and France from October 1st to November 6th (kick-offs are local times) is:
