Tokyo (AFP)

The year or never. Ireland, all new world No. 1 World Rugby, wants to break the curse and finally overcome the stage of the quarterfinals of the World Cup, a year after a six-nation tournament full of promise.

At the end of 2018, after a successful year with only one defeat (against Australia 18-9), the Greens were the big favorites of this Japanese World Cup. Especially after the feat of November against double world champions All Blacks (16-9).

Less than a year later, the cards seem hackneyed: at the end of a disappointing Six Nations Tournament (3 wins, 2 defeats) and a derelict inflicted by England (57-15) at the end of August, the XV Clover is no longer so scary.

Even the place of N.1 world, snatched to New Zealanders just before the World Cup, seems overused.

Fortunately for the coach Joe Schmidt, it has an affordable first round, just to start: besides Scotland, which has not beaten since 2017, Ireland will be able to afford the luxury of entering crescendo in the competition with a pool A where also include the Japanese host country, Russia and Samoa.

And if the Greens regain color, they will become again this team very difficult to beat, with world-class players in all lines, such as Johnny Sexton, Rory Best, Jacob Stockdale, Robbie Henshaw or Conor Murray.

Missing only the experienced Devin Toner (33 years old, 67 caps), dismissed in favor of the second line of Munster Jean Kleyn (26 years, 2 caps), of South African origin and qualified to represent Ireland in August only.

"They will engage fully to try to pass the quarter-finals," said Schmidt, who will leave after the World Cup to take a sabbatical year with his family.

- Life without Sexton -

The New Zealander, obsessive and ruthless, has set up since 2013 a team practicing a game rather pragmatic, based on its traditional strengths: aggressiveness around the rucks, skill in touch, on the group-penetrating or under the balloons high and foot game. A strategy that often pays off but sometimes lacks imagination and risk taking.

Joe Schmidt's players know each other very well, used for years to play together in selection or in the provinces. And they do not panic anymore when the brain of the team, Sexton, is absent as it was the case part of the year, the fault of an injury to a hand.

"There is depth in this group now, that's what we've been trying to build over the last couple of years with injuries, with Joe giving a lot of players a chance in the last six nations," he said. 34-year-old opener, named best player of the world in 2018.

Sufficient to reach the last square? In the quarterfinals, Ireland should be opposed to South Africa or New Zealand. The opportunity to show that this time, the XV Clover is sufficiently armed.

© 2019 AFP