Eddie O'Sullivan believes the pool draw for the 2019 Rugby World Cup is "as good as it gets" for Ireland.
Joe Schmidt's side have been drawn against Scotland and Japan with the two other slots going to a European second tier nation and a playoff winner.
The consensus has been that Ireland have an excellent chance of topping the pool but also a chance to avoid the injuries that affected the team when the quarter finals came around in the 2015 Rugby World Cup.
Former Ireland head coach O'Sullivan gave his assessment of the draw on Newstalk Drive and was very positive about the way it transpired.
"If you look at the teams in our pool now and the likely other teams to fill it, in terms of pool draw, it's as good as it gets for us," he said.
Saori Yoshida, Olympic freestyle wrestler of Japan, draws Americas 2 ©INPHO/GettyDave Rogers/World Rugby Pool Images
"Our history against Scotland, you can point back to February in Edinburgh, but historically we've only lost twice in competitive games to Scotland in 15 years, so we have Scotland's number and should be able to follow through on that at this stage.
"Japan are the host nation. We've had worse draws with host nations like Australia and France, so in terms of pool draws, it's as good as it gets.
"I don't think if we were asked to swap pools tonight, we'd swap with anybody so the fact that we have a pool that we should manoeuvre fairly comfortably does mean that we will get to a quarter final and we could be in very good fettle, unlike the last World Cup when we got to play Argentina. The French game took a huge toll physically on the team with injuries. So we should be in a good place [in 2019] to get out of the pool and be in good shape when we get out of it."
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