In 2011, former Ireland head coach Eddie O'Sullivan was in charge of the USA team at that year's Rugby World Cup and managed to pick up a win against Russia in a pool which also included Ireland and Australia. Eddie spoke to us about the challenge for the smaller rugby nations at the World Cup.
"We had qualifiers in 2009 in my first year in charge and they take place in the Autumn and summer. We played Canada over two legs and we just lost that so we had to go and play Uruguay over two legs, which we won.
"The USA this year have tread a similar path to qualify, so the first and most important thing is to get to the World Cup and then once that happens, all your focus is preparing for the World Cup. It's a huge event in the calendar for teams like the USA because they don't have annual competitions that they can plug into like we have here in the Northern Hemisphere. So the World Cup is a huge focal point for second tier nations.
"The Churchill Cup was a useful competition but the Churchill Cup is gone now for four years, so they have a Pacific Nations and it's not quite the same thing because sometimes there is a lot of travel involved and also you may be playing teams who are not at full strength. In reality they're good games but they're not the same feel as you'll get in a tournament like the World Cup or The Rugby Championship or the Six Nations.
"And it's very hard to get friendlies against Tier 1 nations because the windows to get those friendlies are really in the Autumn in the Northern Hemisphere and most of the Tier 1 nations are not interested in playing Tier 2 nations because they can't make any money out of them. So Tier 2 nations struggle to get fixtures in the Autumn window and often when they do, they're games against other Tier 2 nations or the B team of a Tier 1 nation, so you never get to face off against Tier 1 nations and even when you do in an Autumn window and are lucky to get a fixture against a Tier 1 nation, the odds are they're going to put out a second string team against you. So, it's very hard to get that level of experience in between World Cups.
"In 2011, Russia was our World Cup but there were two other variables. One, was that we had a dreadfully difficult schedule. We had to play Ireland and then four days later we had to play Russia. Then, we had a break of about 10-12 days and then we had to play Australia and then within four days, Italy in our final pool match. So the draw for the Tier 2 nations isn't very helpful at times and they often struggle trying to play games with short breaks in between.
USA players during there national anthem against Ireland in 2011 ©INPHO/Dan Sheridan
"The other factor for us back in 2011, which was just a quirk of faith, we played Ireland on the 10th anniversary of 9/11 and that was quite an emotional day for the team, so that was an extra dimension to it, so we had to go against Ireland and put our best foot forward because it was such a historic occasion for Americans and then four days later put our best foot forward again to play what was our real World Cup game. It was difficult but we got it done in the sense that we had a very good performance against Ireland (losing 22-10) and we did beat Russia in the all-important game and that was great for the team before the final two games.
"That's always the objective when a Tier 2 nation pitches up against a Tier 1 nation, especially at the World Cup, that you acquit yourself well. The odds of winning are very, very slim.
"Almost two-thirds of our USA team were amateur players against full-time professional teams and rugby is such a physical game and with high level intensity that amateur players can struggle in those environments. So in those games the wheels can come off easily and you can ship 50 or 60 points in those games which is dreadfully demoralising. But you always have one game that you target that if you put a good performance in, you can win.
"Also the third dimension for a lot of Tier 2 nations is because they have amateur players, a lot of these guys have put their lives on hold for a World Cup. I had the case with the USA where a lot of guys had put their careers on hold, they'd given up their jobs to go to the World Cup and you don't want to bring them to a World Cup and not get them on the field, so you've got to use all your squad and give them all a World Cup experience and that's another side to it that professional teams don't have to really worry about."
Eddie was speaking to Newstalk Sport's Raf Diallo. He also gave his take on Ireland's first opponents Canada.
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