O'Sullivan steps up World Cup preparations

Rugby News round-upCoach Eddie O'Sullivan will confirm a 30-man World Cup squad on Sunday, August 12th, 24 hours after Ireland play Scotland at Murrayfield in their penultimate warm-up fixture.

A 46-man extended squad continues World Cup preparations by heading to Spala, Poland, on Sunday for a week's training as part of their pre-season programme. The first-choice 15 from the Six Nations travelled to Poland from June 16th to 23rd.

Spala was first used in 2001. It includes swimming pools; a full-sized indoor athletics arena with reduced-impact surface; power and weight-lifting equipment; an outdoor running track, and a rugby pitch.

It also has a cryotherapy unit, a freezing chamber players enter to speed recovery from the fatigue of training.

"Spala has been an important part of our preparations for the last number of seasons and allows the players to train harder, but, more importantly, recover more quickly from their physical exertion," said O'Sullivan.

"The players who did not tour Argentina responded well to their first camp, so we have hit the ground running in our preparations. The shorter off-season and less preparation time means we have to be careful how we manage the players, so the preseason programme is very important.

"After the Spala trips we will be heading into more rugby-specific preparation when we have our first Rugby World Cup camp at the end of July. By that stage we will be into Test-match mode for our final two warm-up games and after that into the tournament itself, so it is really only around the corner."

The IRB cut-off date for squad announcements is August 14th.

Ireland play Italy on Friday, August 24th, at Ravenhill.

Pool D opponents and tournament hosts France have already released their 30-man squad but were forced to bring in Toulouse loose forward Thierry Dusautoir after specialist number eight Elvis Vermeulen withdrew with a back injury.

Coach Bernard Laporte has named Rafael Ibanez as team captain ahead of Fabien Pelous after the Toulouse lock missed the Six Nations through injury. Ibanez (34) guided France to the World Cup final in 1999.

A 41-man Argentina squad are training at the Andrews Institute in Pensacola, Florida, which is used in pre-season by several NFL franchises.

Ireland World Cup pre-season schedule

July 7th-14th: Spala, Poland (previous Spala group and Argentina tour squad). July 15th-28th: Conditioning programme in provincial centres. July 29th-August 3rd: Full rugby camp (Limerick). August 5th-11th: Rugby camp (Dublin). Ireland v Scotland, Saturday, August 11th. August 12th-17th: Warm-weather camp, Capbreton (France). August 19th-24th: Rugby camp (Belfast). Ireland v Italy, Friday, August 24th. August 26th-31st: Rugby camp (Dublin). September 3rd-5th: RWC assembly (Dublin).

Depart for Bordeaux September 5th