When Ireland take on Russia on Thursday, Irishman Mark McDermott will be the one plotting to cause an upset.

The former Leinster and Munster hooker has been acting Russia head coach since February 2018.

And he's under no illusion about their place as pool minnows. Ahead of the Ireland game, McDermott took time out to chat to his ex-Munster team-mate Alan Quinlan and Off The Ball's Eoin Sheahan.

"They're also cognisant of the fact that they're a minnow in world rugby," he said.

"And they qualified by default for this competition. They didn't qualify by merit, because Romania and Spain were kicked out.

"Now that doesn't take away from the intrinsic passion that they have for the game. But then there's the reality of the competition you come up against.

"I alluded a couple of times to people [pre-tournament] that if we were to win a game, which would be deemed a massive success for Russian rugby, obviously [best chance would be] Japan or Samoa. Probably Samoa would've been the one.  Why? Even though they have more talented players, infrastructure-wise, they're probably worse than Russia. So you're hoping you catch them on the hop."

2019 Rugby World Cup Pool A, Tokyo Stadium, Japan 20/9/2019. Japan vs Russia Russia's Kirill Golosnitskiy celebrates scoring their first try with Vasily Artemyev ©INPHO/Craig Mercer

He also gave an insight into the place of rugby in Russia.

David vs Goliath

"Russia traditionally loves sport and rugby will catch on properly at some stage," he said.

"They have the infrastructure in relation to facilities. It's somehow managing to get their domestic competition stronger."

But how did he feel when he realised Russia would have to play Ireland at the World Cup?

"The feeling for me is obviously you're playing against your home country who in one way I want to see go as far as they can within the World Cup because that's been their goal," he said.

"Obviously, I'm professionally contracted to Russia. So all of my allegiance are to Russia for those 80 minutes. But there's also a realism. There are many people who coach, be it professional or amateur, and you have a David and Goliath situation. Very rarely does David win that. In some people's eyes, Japan may have been that David. But Japan is a much bigger David than Russia is. The goal for [Thursday], and let's call a spade a spade, is that those guys go out, empty the tank on the pitch, get some degree of respect. That's all they're looking for: respect."

You can watch the full interview with Mark McDermott above via YouTube.

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