Ireland’s lock and captain Paul O’Connell attends a team training session in Cardiff yesterday. (AFP)

Reuters
Cardiff

Ireland are firmly focused on their opening World Cup Pool D match against Canada in Cardiff tomorrow after a sluggish build-up which cast doubt on their title credentials.
The Six Nations champions lost at home to Wales and were beaten by England at Twickenham but they believe they are in good shape to win the World Cup for the first time, starting in a group that also includes France, Italy and Romania.
“We will just focus on each individual challenge, it’s all or nothing now,” winger Simon Zebo told reporters. “We know exactly where we are and we are ready for Canada. We will have to be at our very best to beat them.” Scrumhalf Eoin Reddan described the importance of the team’s opening match and the unique challenge they will face at the Millennium Stadium.
“It is going to be absolutely massive,” he said. “We have to deal with the pressure and go out and express ourselves, play the style of rugby we want to.”
Coach Joe Schmidt has built a formidable Ireland team, based on an intimidating forward pack and experienced halfbacks Conor Murray and Jonathan Sexton.
Canada coach Kieran Crowley is well aware of the size of the task facing his country, who have appeared in every World Cup but got through the pool stage only once, in 1991.
“If you look at their last game you can see that Joe Schmidt is working towards some kind of plan,” he said. “They have a hugely strong scrum and their lineout is one of the best percentage lineouts in world rugby.
“I still see them as one of the favourites for the cup. I think most pundits would see that. They would probably have looked at the pool draw and would have seen the end of the tournament as their time to peak. It’s no good peaking before you start the tournament.”
Crowley is unconcerned about facing Ireland first.
“I don’t think it matters that we have got them first up,” he said. “In a World Cup you’ve got four pool games and you’ve got to play everyone at some stage. It’s test match rugby and you prepare the same way whenever you are playing them.”
TEAM
Ireland:15-Rob Kearney, 14-Dave Kearney, 13-Jared Payne, 12-Luke Fitzgerald, 11-Keith Earls, 10-Jonathan Sexton, 9-Conor Murray; 8-Jamie Heaslip, 7-Sean O’Brien, 6-Peter O’Mahony, 5-Paul O’Connell (captain), 4-Iain Henderson, 3-Mike Ross, 2-Rory Best, 1-Jack McGrath.
Replacements - 16-Sean Cronin, 17-Cian Healy, 18-Nathan White, 19-Donnacha Ryan, 20-Chris Henry, 21-Eoin Reddan, 22-Ian Madigan, 23-Simon Zebo
Canada: 15-Matt Evans, 14-Jeff Hassler, 13-Ciaran Hearn, 12-Nick Blevins, 11-DTH Van Der Merwe, 10-Nathan Hirayama, 9-Gordon McRorie, 8-Aaron Carpenter, 7-John Moonlight, 6-Kyle Gilmour, 5 Jamie Cudmore (captain) 4-Brett Beukeboom, 3-Doug Wooldridge, 2-Ray Barkwill, 1-Hubert Buydens
Replacements: 16-Benoit Piffero, 17-Djustics Sears-Duru, 18-Andrew Tiedemann, 19-Jebb Sinclair, 20-Richard Thorpe, 21-Phil Mack, 22-Liam Underwood, 23-Conor Trainor.