And so the journey resumes for Ireland, these last few miles on the road to a World Cup.
Tadhg Beirne has been here before, he was part of the Ireland squad for the 2019 tournament in Japan when en route they had a warm-up victory over Italy and two wins against Wales. But sandwiched in between those was a chastening 57-15 loss to England.
It was a result that left its mark on the dressingroom and contributed to a disjointed and ultimately fruitless World Cup for Ireland four years ago.
“It took a long time to get over it,” admits Beirne. “It was fairly disappointing to be honest, we had such expectations of ourselves and we probably felt like we didn’t fire on all cylinders.
“Even when you talk about warm-ups, we didn’t particularly play well in them, did we, and that fed into the World Cup in terms of our performances over there. I’m certainly hoping that’s not the case this year and we’ll be doing everything we can to change that.”
The first of Ireland’s three warm-up games takes place at 8pm on Saturday in the Aviva when Italy come to town. Andy Farrell’s side will also play England and Samoa during this Bank of Ireland Nations Series. And Beirne believes there is significant merit in arriving at the World Cup having racked up three victories.
“I just think when you’re winning you gain a bit of momentum and if we can come through this with three wins we’ll certainly be building our confidence going to the World Cup and definitely building momentum,” he adds.
“You’re pulling on the Irish jersey, it’s a Test game, it’s capped, you’re playing for a position in the World Cup. You can certainly lose your spot in a World Cup squad if you don’t play well.
“We have a record at home that we are proud of at the moment and we are playing a certain type of rugby that we want to continue doing. So, we are looking at it very much as we would a Six Nations game or a November international game, it’s a Test match we want to win and we are going out there to prove a point, 100 per cent.”
This is Craig Casey’s first spin on the road to a World Cup, but the scrumhalf is in agreement with his Munster colleague on the positives of Ireland picking up a hat-trick of victories before facing Romania in their World Cup opener next month.
“I think results most definitely matter,” says Casey. “Obviously the performance matters, 100 per cent, and we’re trying to build that cohesion going into the World Cup and get back into the swing of things from where we left off in the Six Nations, and hopefully we’ll get better and better in each game, but winning is most definitely the goal.
“For me, it’s another chance to get a Test cap under the belt so I don’t take it as a friendly at all. I’m expecting the Italians to come heavy again, they already have a game under their belt against Scotland so that will probably stand to them.
“I don’t think the intensity will drop one bit, it’ll probably go up a bit with players knowing they have to play themselves into contention for a World Cup squad.”
The Munster contingent arrived at this Ireland training camp buoyed by their URC victory, a triumph which ended the province’s 12-year wait for silverware.
“Gav Coombes wanted to bring the URC champions hats in, but we went against that,” smiles Casey.
“I think it certainly lifted our spirits, that’s for sure,” adds Beirne. “We have been to semi-finals and finals so many times over the years and lost, it can take a while to get over that. Just for us it gave us a little pep in our step coming in, we didn’t have our heads down like we have probably in the past. It was a nice feeling, for sure.”
There is, of course, no one route to a World Cup. Their Munster team-mate Jean Kleyn, who played for Ireland at the 2019 tournament, will be lining out for his native South Africa in France, having been cleared in June to make the switch. Ireland will play the Springboks in Paris on September 23rd.
“I gave him a few texts, I’m delighted for him to be honest, he’s been massive for Munster the last couple of years and has put in performances week in, week out,” says Beirne.
“He had an opportunity to go and play for his home country, why wouldn’t he take it. I thought he played excellently in his first game. I’m sure he’ll get a few more caps with them soon and I wish him all the best. If he is playing in that game [against us]) though, hopefully he’ll be on the losing end.”
