Ireland hope for element of surprise
IRELAND hooker Michael McIlorum says their Pool C rivals should underestimate the Wolfhounds if they want to wave goodbye to their World Cup knockout hopes.
The 29-year-old veteran of two World Cups said his side was eyeing off challenging Italy’s talented forward pack in their must-win opener in Cairns on Sunday.
“We’re probably going to have to win every game in this group,” McIlorum said.
“We lose one game and it’s curtains really, so this game’s massive for both teams if we want to qualify.
“Most rugby league games are won and lost in the middle, in the ruck, so I don’t think this is going to be any different.
“We’ve looked at their middles, they’re NRL quality players, but we’ve also got some good middles, some good, experienced players in there, so hopefully we can win that battle in the middle.
“We’ve had a decent time to kind of acclimatise and it’s going to be tough, we’re well aware of that, and we’ve got to look after the ball and keep hold of the ball to get a result at the end.”
McIlorum said it would be a surprise if Italy captain and Hull backrower Mark Minichiello hadn’t told his side about the Irish threat, but hoped to capitalise if he’d forgotten.
“They’ll know a little bit about us and be trying to exploit that,” he said.
“We’re hoping they do underestimate us and we surprise them.”
This World Cup will be particularly special for McIlorum, who is playing in honour of his grandad Harry, who died this year.