Ireland celebrated a thrilling win over reigning world champions South Africa last time out (Bradley Collyer/PA)
Before the start of the World Cup, I questioned whether Ireland had the capability of withstanding the attritional nature of coming through a pool containing both defending champions South Africa and Scotland.
This was based on the evidence from Ireland’s campaigns in both 2015 and 2019, when their squads were not deep enough to cope with the physical demands of qualifying for the quarter-finals – and peaking a year too soon in their World Cup cycles.
