Pool B in the 2023 Rugby World Cup will get underway this weekend, with Ireland taking on Romania at the Nouveau Stade de Bordeaux on Saturday afternoon.
Ireland come into this match following a 17-13 over Samoa a couple of weeks ago, while Romania were beaten 57-7 by Italy in San Benedetto del Tronto in the middle of August.
Match preview
The Irish have been sensational over the last 12 months and come into this competition as one of the favourites to win the Webb Ellis Cup after securing the Six Nations title earlier in the year.
During that competition, Andy Farrell's side brought an end to France's 12-match winning streak by beating them 32-19 at the Aviva Stadium and also forced Les Bleus out of the number one world ranking.
The Wolfhounds got through the tournament unbeaten in their five matches, and having defeated Italy, England and Samoa in their warm-up matches, they have extended their own win streak to 14 matches, which is the longest active winning streak of any tier-one nation entering the World Cup.
While they may have gone somewhat under the radar in the last few weeks, one of the key strengths of the Irish team is that they are arguably the most settled of any side leading up to the World Cup, with coach Farrell seemingly fully aware of his best 15.
However, while they may tick all the boxes to this point, Ireland still needs to reach their full potential on the biggest stage of them all, failing to progress beyond the quarter-finals in any of the nine editions of the competition.
They are now in what many consider the pool of death and will need to hit the ground running to pile the pressure on the likes of the Springboks and Scotland early in the competition.
Meanwhile, Romania will be making their return to the Rugby World Cup, having missed the last edition after they were found guilty of fielding ineligible players during qualifying back in 2018 and were handed a points reduction as a result.
During qualification for this year's competition, Romania had initially finished third in the Europe 2 qualification process but were bumped up to second after Spain were docked points for playing an ineligible player in two RWC 2023 qualifying matches.
The Oaks claimed victory in six out of their 10 Rugby Europe Championship matches in 2021 and 2022, with the most significant wins being their 37-27 defeat of Portugal and a commanding 38-12 win against the Netherlands on the final weekend.
However, leading up to this competition, Eugen Apjok's side played three warm-up matches but failed to win any, beaten 31-17 by the USA, followed by a 56-6 loss to Georgia and a 57-7 thumping by the Italians.
Romania have been a relatively competitive European nation for some time, and while this is as tough of a start as they could have asked for, their focus will likely be on Tonga, who are perhaps the only opponent in this group they can realistically hope to secure a win against.
Ireland form (all competitions):
- W
- W
- W
- W
- W
- W
Romania form (all competitions):
- L
- L
- W
- L
- L
- L
Team News
Ireland received a huge boost in recent days as Farrell announced that skipper Johnny Sexton would return to the starting 15 for the first time since sustaining a groin injury back in March and serving a suspension thereafter due to misconduct in the Champions Cup final.
The 22-year-old Joe McCarthy will earn just his second Test start in this match, and he will join James Ryan and Tadhg Beirne in the second row.
Jack Conan (foot), Dan Sheehan (foot) and Dave Kilcoyne (hamstring) will all miss out on this match through injuries.
Hinckley Vaovasa will start in the fly-half position for Romania in their opening fixture of the competition, while Cristian Chirica will sport the armband.
Gabriel Rupanu will make up the other half alongside Vaovasa, while Jason Tomane will move to the inside centre with Fonovai Tangimana in at number 13.
Adrian Motoc and Stefan Iancu will form the lock partnership, with Ovidiu Cojocaru as the hooker, flanked by Iulian Hartig and Alexandru Gordas as the props on either side.
Ireland starting lineup: Hugo Keenan, 14. Keith Earls, 13. Garry Ringrose, 12. Bundee Aki, 11. James Lowe, 10. Johnny Sexton (c), 9. Jamison Gibson-Park; 8. Caelan Doris, 7. Peter O'Mahony, 6. Tadhg Beirne, 5. James Ryan, 4. Joe McCarthy, 3. Tadhg Furlong, 2. Rob Herring, 1. Andrew Porter
Replacements: 16. Ronan Kelleher, 17. Jeremy Loughman, 18. Tom O'Toole, 19. Iain Henderson, 20. Josh van der Flier, 21. Conor Murray, 22. Jack Crowley, 23. Robbie Henshaw
Romania starting lineup: 15. Marius Simionescu, 14. Nicolas Onutu, 13. Fonovai Tangimana, 12. Jason Tomane, 11. Tevita Manumua, 10. Hinckley Vaovasa, 9. Gabriel Rupanu, 8. Iulian Hartig, 7. Ovidiu Cojocaru, 6. Alexandru Gordas, 5. Adrian Motoc, 4. Stefan Iancu; 3. Florian Rosu, 2. Vlad Neculau, 1. Cristian Chirica (c)
Replacements: 16. Florin Bardasu, 17. Alexandru Savin, 18. Gheorghe Gajion, 19. Marius Iftimiciuc, 20. Dragos Ser, 21. Alin Conache, 22. Tudor Boldor, 23. Taylor Gontineac
Head To Head
Ireland and Romania have met eight times in the past, and the Irish have won each of those encounters. Three of those matches came in World Cup competitions, and Ireland won two of those matches, scoring 44 points and 45 in the other.
We say: Ireland 49-10 Romania
Ireland could not have asked for a better fixture to get their 2023 Rugby World Cup campaign started. They will be eyeing up a big win here.
While Romania will be delighted to be back on the biggest stage, their focus is likely to be on other matches in the competition, and they will see this as a free hit against the world's top-ranked side.
We fancy Ireland to win this match by over 30 points.
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