RUGBY WORLD CUP 2011 DRAW: ALL IN ALL, it could have been better but it most certainly could have been worse.
Most present at the draw for the 2011 Rugby World Cup held inside Tourism New Zealand's unique "Giant Rugby Ball Facility" adjacent to London's Tower Bridge were inclined to scoff as an awful lot of water will have passed under that bridge and many more by the time it kicks off.
Italian coach Nick Mallett was one of the few to call it as he saw it and scaled it in about second place of four in order of preference.
Of the second tier seeds, English faces could hardly stop beaming at being pitted in with the perceived weakest link of the top band, namely Argentina. Ironically, had Scotland displaced Ireland in eighth place in the IRB rankings, Ireland would have drawn Argentina and England.
In so much as one can gauge the situation three years in advance, drawing Australia from the top band of seeds and Italy from the third band was possibly the next best outcome.
Projecting further down the line, though, it's debatable whether it is a favourable draw for Ireland. Were they to win pool C, they'd meet the match-hardened runners-up from Pool D, and were they to finish second in their pool, would run into the winners of Pool D. Plotting the first course, possible semi-final opponents are France, England and Argentina. The second route, would most likely mean a semi-final against the All Blacks.
Admittedly, of the three Tri- Nations heavyweights, Ireland would have reason to prefer a crack at the Wallabies than either the hosts (whom they've never beaten in 22 attempts) or the Springboks, against whom two of Ireland's three wins have come at Lansdowne Road in 2004 and 2006.
Ireland have had eight wins in 27 meetings with the Wallabies, and although beaten by Australia in four of the previous World Cups, did extend them to 18-19 in the 1991 Lansdowne Road quarter-final and 16-17 in their pool fixtures in Melbourne in 2003. Furthermore, Ireland have won their last dozen meetings with Italy.
"It's a fantastic way to kick off the competition," Declan Kidney said of yesterday's stylishly presented draw, "but it's so far from now it's impossible to say who'll be around, what players will be showing form. Ireland and Australia have played in World Cups before, and it will add spice to the Italy-Ireland matches over the coming three years."
The World Cup is 1,011 days away, and while 29-year-old O'Driscoll hopes to be a part of it, "I've learned to not look too far ahead, and if I learned anything from the last World Cup it is that no teams comes to a World Cup to be a number now."
Reflecting on Ireland qualifying for the knock-out stages just once in his three previous attempts, O'Driscoll admitted "it's not something to shout from the rafters about. Sure we want to do something a little better than that, but step by step, you don't go shouting your ambitions three years away."
Looking ahead to the "physicality at every single World Cup match," Kidney also spoke of the need to generate a squad between now and then.
Regarding criticism of Ireland's autumnal campaign, Kidney said: "There's a bit of negativity around Irish society at the moment in general, and we're probably not doing ourselves a whole lot of good by that. We've managed to achieve our objective of remaining tier two . . . for the 2011 World Cup."
For his part, Australia coach Robbie Deans appeared to regard the day as a light-hearted exercise which merely extended his stay in Europe at the end of a long hard season and tour.
"What's ahead of us . . . three years is it?" smiled Deans with scarcely concealed disdain, "so I guess it will add a little bit of intrigue and interest to the viewing public but to be fair, beyond that, it won't be a distraction and it won't be something we'll be focusing on."
Being held in the home of Australia's nearest neighbours shouldn't hinder them unduly, and as a native Kiwi, Deans did suggest conditions should be eminently more favourable, which O'Driscoll welcomed. "Speaking personally, you always want to play in better conditions rather than hypothermic conditions. Never having played down there at that time of the year, and seen a bit on the telly, you'd hope for greener grass and clearer skies."
Completing Pool D will be Europe Two and Americas Two. The former will be the second placed finisher in a qualifying campaign featuring Georgia, Romania and Russia, while the latter will be the runners-up from a convoluted qualifying procedure that includes Canada, the USA and Uruguay.
Looking ahead to the prospect of renewing acquaintances with, say Georgia, Kidney pointed out: "when you're ranked like us, second, we're sort of the target team for the other three teams in the pool so I'm sure they'll be looking to have a go at us."
Mallett was grateful to have avoided Pools A and D. "With respect to Argentina, I don't believe they'll be the fourth best team in the world in three years' time and that pool is wide open, and that would be the one we would have preferred.
"But I think we have the second best out of four. In the last World Cup, Australia got knocked out in the quarter-finals and Ireland didn't even make the quarter-finals. We don't know what's going to happen in three years but at the moment I would say it's a better draw for Italy than A and D."
Jack Hobbs, chairman of the organising committee, revealed that 18 regions had submitted applications to host games, and apparently, the most popular country to have based in their region were Ireland.
Alas, it's not down to Ireland's achievements at World Cups, more their popularity as good socialisers.
Quarter-finals: Match 1: Winners B v runners-up A. Match 2: winners C v runners-up D; Match 3: winners A v runners-up B; Match 4: winners D v runners-up c. Semi-finals: winners match 1 v winners match 2; winners match 3 v winners match 4.
