Getting comfortable with great expectations

Rugby World Cup countdown: A bullish Denis Hickie tells John O'SullivanIreland's main World Cup target is a victory

There is a recurring theme to interviews ahead of the Rugby World Cup in France. It centres on asking Ireland players whether the mantle of expectation, traditionally a harbinger of underachievement in previous decades, sits snugly on their shoulders.

Most Irish sports people don't do brash or arrogant but there is a realisation that on the merit of their performances over the past two seasons, this current squad don't need to take refuge in banalities. There is no requirement to be apologetic about their chances in France. Ireland's candidature for success has been endorsed north and south of the equator.

Denis Hickie acknowledges as much with a smile: "It's good expectations are high. You never know what the motivation is when players and coaches from other countries are talking you up, but it's fair to say that we will be in a good position going into the World Cup.

"I don't think anyone has any problem with that from our point of view. Everyone is mindful the Southern Hemisphere teams look strong and we don't necessarily (have a right to) pick up where we left off last autumn. We have to raise our levels again because they will have (raised theirs).

"We will be among the favourites, which is a nice place to be and a place where Ireland's haven't been going into a World Cup. We have a very, very tough pool. It won't take much to go from the prospect of having a potentially great World Cup to potentially a bad one. It's a pretty thin line we're going to be treading. Overall we are very comfortable with the position we have earned going into the tournament."

The 31-year-old wing, capped 58 times for his country, did concede that the expectation is not being driven by the supporters but rather by the players themselves: "It's easy to hide behind generalities; (ie) no better or worse than anyone going in (to the tournament) or that we will be doing our best. There is no harm in confirming that we are going there to win it as a main target.

"There are guys who won't get a chance to have a go at another tournament. It's not beyond us to win the World Cup so it has to be our aim to win it. That's the way everyone has been approaching it and that's evident in the way we are training. It'll take a good team to beat us."

This week in Limerick the players will be reintroduced to an old friend, a rugby ball, having spent most of the last eight weeks, including two visits to Spala, working on fitness and strength issues. Hickie pointed out, "The group haven't done a lot of rugby collectively but this week signals the start of the World Cup as far as we are concerned. All our pre-season is done. I think everyone is in a good frame of mind."

The extreme training regimen of Spala was accepted without a quibble by the players, recognising the benefits. For those senior players who didn't travel to Argentina, of which Hickie was one, their summer holidays arrived a little bit earlier than is customary.

"It was unusual to find yourself away in mid-May and probably just as unusual to find yourself back in mid-June."

Hickie smiled before outlining his experiences when catching up with a good friend and former Leinster and Ireland number eight in Florida: "I was over getting flown round by Victor Costello in a small plane, which is as nerve-racking as it sounds, having seen him dragged onto planes for many years like BA Baracus in The A-Team (using) drugged hamburgers and spiked drinks to get him on the plane.

"He's now in full control and doing really well over there. He took us for a few spins around south west Florida. He's well on the way to becoming a commercial pilot, scary as that sounds. We stopped in New York on the way home, which was a slightly different pace of life."

The shadow of the Scotland game at Murrayfield on Saturday week looms and it's an important part of Ireland's World Cup preamble.

"We'll be looking at those games (they play Italy at Ravenhill on August 24th) with a view to the World Cup soon after," says Hickie.

"There is a World Cup focus in everything we are doing. We are looking to hit the ground running. We have been running up hills, running round tracks and lifting weights, so it'll be nice to play a bit of rugby."