our years ago Ireland travelled to the World Cup in France in confidence. They left in disarray after a humiliating exit at the end of the pool stages. The survivors of that disastrous campaign are hoping to exorcise a few demons in New Zealand and that means hitting the ground running with a morale-boosting win against the United States in New Plymouth on Sunday.
Ominously for the Irish, their warm-up schedule has been just as underwhelming as it was in 2007. In fact, that is sugar-coating it - things have been much worse this time around. Whereas a clearly undercooked Ireland actually managed to eek out a win over Italy in Belfast just before they left for Bordeaux, they have arrived in New Zealand on the back of four successive defeats, a calamitous run which has seen them drop to eighth in the IRB World Rankings.
However, head coach Declan Kidney believes that he was right to insist on a rigorous pre-tournament fixture list - and two clashes with France sandwiched in between meetings with Scotland and England most certainly was that - and we will find out if he was right at full-time on Sunday.Ireland v United States of America Rugby world cup 2011 live streaming online TV
Match Scheduled:
Date: Sun 11, 2011
Time: 18:00 local, 06:00 GMT, 12:00 BDT
Venue: Yarrow Stadium, New Plymouth
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