That this is the fittest and best prepared Irish squad for a World Cup is beyond dispute. Indeed, so much so, it seems, that henceforth promos highlighting the merits of enlistment with the Irish squad (wealth, fame, travel, etc) might conclude with the carrot: "and shed those extra pounds too".

When extolling the excellence of Ireland's physical preparation for the World Cup at their base in Finnstown House yesterday, Irish manager Donal Lenihan revealed: "We were even surprised ourselves yesterday when we went to get fitted out that a lot of our players had lost about two inches off the waist which may have caused our clothing people a little bit of difficulty." Lenihan didn't clarify whether this weightloss included the management. "Certainly from the physical point of view we're exactly where we want to be," added the Irish manager.

"Obviously in terms of the preparations, we played four matches since the season started. For 60 minutes we were very pleased with our performance against Argentina. Our warm-up games against the provinces went exactly as all Irish World Cup preparations go," he added dryly, while admitting: "we didn't exactly play to the level we would have aspired to, but I think it was a reflection of the nervousness that players had about getting injured prior to the World Cup.

"Since we came together yesterday you can see everybody is buzzing," Lenihan said. "Even in the weather conditions this morning, the quality of the training session was outstanding and I think they've lifted themselves to a higher level of training than anything we've seen in training in the past two weeks for the provincial games. And that's exactly what we would have hoped would happen.

"I think everybody was just anxious to get the whole thing going. We've been talking about the World Cup for two or three years and I think when the players saw the Australians and the Americans arriving last week it showed that the waiting was over."

Ireland's first session of their final week's build-up was conducted in near torrential rain at Westmanstown. "I think it is to welcome all the other teams from around the world to a typical Irish morning," observed Lenihan.

It wouldn't be the equalising weather that Ireland would want against the USA, but Lenihan was optimistic that that won't happen. "I think the forecast is for rain earlier in the week and for it to clear up later in the week, so we'll settle for that."

Given the conditions, the training was impressively sharp. The few watching punters may have been thrown something of a curve ball by the presence of Eric Miller and Kieron Dawson in an otherwise first-choice back row, but the management were most likely just mixing and matching.

Although there is the possibility that Ireland mightn't necessarily opt for a first-choice XV per se when the team to play the USA is announced tomorrow after an open morning session in Westmanstown, Lenihan pointed to the need for an opening win. Hence, the likelihood still is that Ireland will go into their opening game with the following combination: O'Shea; Bishop, O'Driscoll, Maggs, Mostyn; Humphreys, Tierney; Clohessy, Wood, Wallace, Davidson, O'Kelly, Brennan, O'Cuinneagain and Ward.

Once again the Irish coach Warren Gatland has taken a leaf out out of New Zealand's book by having a goodwill fax line opened up for Ireland. Perhaps conscious of the relatively subdued build-up to the World Cup, Gatland is thus repeating the morale-lifting trick he employed before his first game in charge against France 21 months ago.

The Irish World Cup fax line is (01-6765953), while team sponsors Irish Permanent have established a special World Cup web site with direct access to the Irish squad at www.permanentrugby.com.

As things stand, about 30,000 tickets have been sold for the American game, and about 5,000 less for Ireland's final Pool E game against Romania on Friday October 15th.

The Ireland-Australia game on Sunday October 10th will be a sell-out, although the RWC '99 organisers have returned some terrace tickets to the IRFU for this game - as is likely to be the case for the quarter-final at Lansdowne Road on Sunday October 24th. To facilitate ticket purchases for World Cup games, the IRFU have set up a hotline booking telephone number (012469900) as well as an internet address: www.ticketmaster.ie. Tickets for the Ireland-Australia game will also go on sale this morning at HMV Grafton Street, and for the Australia-Romania game at Virgin Music, Castlecourt, Belfast.

Both the Australia-USA match at Thomond Park on Thursday October 14th and the Australia-Romania game at Ravenhill next Sunday are expected to reach their capacities of 10,800 and 14,900 respectively.

According to the Union's chief executive Philip Browne, the IRFU have invested almost £1 million on upgrading Ravenhill and £3.1 million on refurbishments at Thomond Park (primarily on terracing, floodlighting and the relaying of both pitches).

Browne also revealed the findings of a survey conducted by the UCD Graduate School of Business Marketing Development Programme (and commissioned by the IRFU) which showed the financial spin-offs on the Irish economy from the last two Five Nations' campaigns.

The Ireland-Scotland game of last year contributed an estimated £9,820,204 to the economy, of which £5,079,749 was spent by 11,990 visiting supporters. The Ireland-Wales game generated an estimated £12,036,944 (incorporating £7,261,580 spent by 20,731 visiting supporters).

As for Ireland's home Five Nations games earlier this year, the French game generated an estimated £10,787,113 (of which £5,405,311 was spent by 9,000 visiting supporters), while the English game was unsurprisingly the most bountiful, generating an estimated £16,144,216 (of which £9,207,200 was spent by the 17,000 visiting supporters). Which merely shows what we all suspected, namely that the English are the best spenders.

It is estimated that 40,000 overseas visitors will come to Ireland for the Pool E matches in the World Cup. On this basis, the anticipated spending from foreign visitors during the World Cup is liable to be in the region of £15-20 million, thereby generating a gross contribution to the Irish economy of something in the region of £28-30 million.