World Cup countdown:The France-England and Wales-Argentina games have perhaps served to heighten awareness within the Ireland squad that the softly, softly approach to the World Cup warm-up programme needs to be taken on a considerable notch. Not that the Bayonne game last Friday was, as Ireland coach Eddie O'Sullivan put it, a garden party, but there is a sense in the Irish camp that Friday's opponents in Ravenhill, Italy, will provide a meaty, more relevant and, eh, relatively legal challenge.

Pitted in the so-called group of death next month, Ireland are set for a couple of predictably bruising encounters with France and Argentina at the business end of the pool stages, and as Paul O'Connell has stated, viewed in that light the Azzurri are perfect opponents.

Rory Best is one of those who has mixed it with the Italians at the coalface, and he may do so again on home turf next Friday night.

"Everyone always goes on about Italy's physical presence up front but as well as that they have some very good backs," he said. "They're a good team, an up-and-coming team, and they are probably going to have quite a good World Cup themselves and are going to be looking to kick-start that on Friday night."

There is also a clear sense the Italians are now what Ireland need, a point alluded to by Geordan Murphy: "Yeah, I think it will be a very competitive affair. I know a couple of the Italian boys and I think they are looking forward to coming over here. It is their last run-out pre-World Cup as well so guys have an opportunity of playing for spots in the first team and I think it will be a full-on international."

It is also a fixture bathed in history, given it will be the first time Ireland have hosted a full international at the Belfast venue since 1954, and accordingly, it has long since been sold out.

And Friday-night games under lights, in front of a capacity crowd of 12,000, are eminently more atmospheric than an afternoon kick-off in a half-empty Lansdowne Road.

For some, too, the benefits are a little unusual as well as welcome.

"It's good to be here," said Best in the squad's Belfast base yesterday. "Normally I have to travel three hours to meet up with the squad so it was nice to only have to drive half an hour to go to the team meeting.

"It will be good to play at Ravenhill. Ravenhill is very special to me and it will be good to get that run-out. I know it is sold out and it is going to be a fantastic atmosphere."

The jury will long remain out on the merits or otherwise of the Bayonne match last Thursday, the reverberations of which are still being keenly felt in the French media and French rugby circles, where criticism of the match taking place have been more than offset by condemnation of Bayonne's approach to what should have been a celebration of Basque and Irish cultures and rugby.

Bayonne's post-match messages have also been decidedly mixed, what with coach Jean-Pierre Éllisalde reckoning he'd seen thousands of punches like the one with which lock Mikaera Tewhata fractured Brian O'Driscoll's sinus, yet the club itself subsequently suspending the offending Kiwi for two games. That, admittedly, is for two friendly matches, making him eligible to start the French championship at the end of October, so it is unlikely to assuage Bernard Lapasset, the president of the French federation, who has had the French management's video of the match viewed and is expected to announce a date for a disciplinary hearing by the end of the week.

In the immediate aftermath of the affair, some frustrated Irish players understandably questioned the validity of the game once it got out of hand, and others admitted the acute need for match practice left them between a rock and a hard place.

The gamble may just about have paid off, presuming O'Driscoll returns in time for the second pool game, against Georgia, and from the perspective of the forwards, Best reckons it was a worthwhile venture: "It was good to get a game, particularly with it being the first game of the season for a lot of us. It was vital that we can get as many games as we can before we start the main thing, because you can do all the running and weightlifting you want but nothing can simulate a scrum or a ruck or a maul in terms of fatigue in the legs. It was good to be starting in what was a strong team."

Murphy, too, maintained, "It wasn't as bad as some of the games I have played in," which prompts interesting visions of games in English club rugby.

"I suppose it was a little bit stop-start," he conceded, "but it was a good run-out for us. We needed it badly and I suppose with the World Cup around the corner, Friday's match against Italy is the opportunity to get a run-out so everyone would have been probably pleased at the way we had to dog it out.

"You can never take into account somebody doing something stupid like that," he added, in reference to the punch that floored O'Driscoll.

"Someone might run on today and hit me over the head with a bat and I am sure it wouldn't be as big a loss as Brian O'Driscoll. But luckily Brian will be back."

The concern running through the squad last Thursday night had been palpable, as was the boost that came with the news the injury would not rule Ireland's inspirational captain out of the World Cup.

"It was great when the news came through," said Murphy. "He is a great character to have around the squad and everyone was really pleased for him that he was going to be back on the world stage."