As the Irish fans made their way through a sweltering Dublin Airport for the 1.55pm flight to Bordeaux on Friday, the reality of this long-haul World Cup set in.
If these same fans are lucky enough to be making the journey to Paris for the final, they'll be doing so four days short of winter, and this Indian summer will be long forgotten. So too would this opening game against Romania.
A shock defeat to hasn't been on the cards; Ireland have won each of their nine previous meetings by an average of 32 points. When Andy Farrell’s team selection for this afternoon’s opener at Stade de Bordeaux was announced on Thursday afternoon - showing close to a full-strength side - that unlikely shock became virtually impossible.
It’s a frustration for the neutral that the Rugby World Cup will still throw up games where the result is beyond doubt, although thankfully the number of those games has shrunk considerably compared to previous tournaments.
Ireland’s World Cup campaign will be judged further down the line, but getting off to a fast start can lay down a mark on the competition, particularly with their main pool rivals South Africa and Scotland meeting on Sunday.
The Six Nations champions come into the World Cup as the number one ranked side in the world, and although they did similar for the disappointing campaign of 2019, this time it looks to be on merit.
A second or third string Ireland would be expected to make light work of this Romania team, who struggled not only in qualification for the tournament, but also in their warm-up games against Italy, USA and Georgia. Instead, Farrell has shown The Oaks maximum respect with the squad he has picked.
Of the starting XV named for this afternoon’s game in Bordeaux, only Josh van der Flier, Dan Sheehan and Mack Hansen would come into an Irish side at their very best, while Van der Flier is one of four vastly experienced options on the bench.
It’s a statement from Farrell, who hinted that his squad needed a bit of a kick up the backside following their final week of warm-up action against Samoa. A sloppy 17-13 win in Bayonne came off the back of a week’s training in Biarritz, which the Ireland coach didn’t appear to be satisfied with.
"I said to you in the Samoa week going to Biarritz, the reason we went there is that there’s a lot of distraction that goes on, certainly when you’re in a hotel that’s on the beach," he said on Thursday.
"Some people handled that brilliantly, some people didn’t. Learning from those experiences is pretty important because you don’t get second chances after this in World Cups."
If there was any complacency in the group, a returning Johnny Sexton will be sure to narrow the focus.
It’s just shy of six months since the 38-year-old (above) last kicked a ball in anger, suffering a season-ending groin injury in the Grand Slam win against England in March, before his misconduct charge from the EPCR final saw him banned for the three warm-up games.
This will be Sexton’s last dance, one final tournament before one of the country’s greatest ever players retires. In a best case scenario he has seven games left in the green jersey, worst case it will be four.
Ireland may be on top of the World Cup rankings, but a pool stage exit is a live possibility. The ludicrously early World Cup draw has produced a lopsided tournament where three of the world’s top five ranked sides are competing for two quarter-final places.
South Africa and Ireland are expected to emerge from the three-way fight, but it would be no major shock for one of them to lose against Scotland. In the real possibility that all three sides finish level on three wins apiece, points difference could well play a major role in who advances to the last eight, and a full-strength Irish side should be ruthless in this opening fixture.
If Romania planned to cause a stir at this tournament, they’ve certainly lulled people into a false sense of security. Their qualification for the tournament was arduous, initially finishing third in the European qualification process which would have seen them go into a playoff, before a points deduction for Spain saw them climb into the automatic qualification spots.
Their warm-up schedule was a disaster, with 50-point hammerings against Italy and Georgia, on top of a defeat to a USA side who failed to qualify for the tournament.
The arrival of experienced Kiwi coach Vern Cotter as a 'consultant’ for the tournament looks like nothing more than a cosmetic appointment. The former Scotland and Fiji boss only linked up with the squad last month and will be departing afterwards for a new Super Rugby gig with the Blues. His scope for improving a squad largely based with Romanian clubs has a fairly low ceiling.
If the draw was unkind to Ireland, the layout of the fixtures was more than generous. With a near-full team out against Romania, Farrell should have the luxury of managing his squad next week against Tonga before the crucial game against South Africa at Stade de France. And although there will still be a game against Scotland to follow, the two-week gap between their most difficult fixtures will mean fatigue cannot be an excuse.
The heat is likely to have its say on how this game is played. Temperatures are expected to hit as high as 36C during the afternoon kickoff in Bordeaux, with tournament organisers confirming there will be water breaks midway through each half.
The sun barely poked its head out of the sky during Ireland’s pre-season camp in Dublin, but fortunately Andy Farrell’s squad experienced similar temperatures during their week-long camps in both Portugal and Biarritz.
The bookmakers’ handicap of 59 points show just how one-sided this contest could potentially be, and for Ireland the main value will be in getting some minutes into the legs of some players, and testing out combinations.
As previously mentioned, it’s six months since Sexton last ran the attack in a meaningful game, while allowing second row Joe McCarthy play alongside a first-choice pack will give Farrell an idea how the 22-year-old fits into his plans later in the tournament.
If both those goals are achieved, in addition to coming through with a clean bill of health and no suspensions, it’ll be a job well done.
Verdict: Ireland by 50+
Ireland: Hugo Keenan; Keith Earls, Garry Ringrose, Bundee Aki, James Lowe; Johnny Sexton (capt), Jamison Gibson-Park; Andrew Porter, Rob Herring, Tadhg Furlong; Joe McCarthy, James Ryan; Tadhg Beirne, Peter O'Mahony, Caelan Doris.
Replacements: Rónan Kelleher, Jeremy Loughman, Tom O'Toole, Iain Henderson, Josh van der Flier, Conor Murray, Jack Crowley, Robbie Henshaw.
Romania: Marius Simionescu; Nicolas Onutu, Fonovai Tangimana, Jason Tomane, Tevita Manumua; Hinckley Vaovasa, Gabriel Rupanu; Iulian Hartig, Ovidiu Cojocaru, Alexandru Gordas; Adrian Motoc, Stefan Iancu; Florian Rosu, Vlad Neculau, Cristian Chirica (capt).
Replacements: Florin Bardasu, Alexandru Savin, Gheorghe Gajion, Marius Iftimiciuc, Dragos Ser, Alin Conache, Tudor Boldor, Taylor Gontineac.
Referee: Nika Amashukeli (Georgia)
Listen to the RTÉ Rugby podcast on Apple Podcasts, Soundcloud, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts.
Listen to live coverage of Ireland v Romania (Saturday 2.30pm) on RTÉ Radio 1, and follow live updates of that game, France v New Zealand (Friday 8.15pm) and South Africa v Scotland (Sunday 4.45pm) on RTÉ Sport Online and the RTÉ News app, with match reports on every game.
