Rugby World Cup draw: Ireland's group could have been worse says Rory Best
- Published
Best led Ireland at last year's World Cup in Japan
Rory Best believes Ireland will be pleased with the Rugby World Cup draw that placed them in Pool B alongside South Africa and Scotland.
Having been drawn from pot two, Ireland were guaranteed to face one of England, New Zealand, South Africa or Wales.
"When you look at the top seeds, I think ideally if you were Ireland you would have wanted Wales," said Best.
"But probably South Africa is next because I don't think you want to be playing New Zealand or England."
Speaking on Sportsound Extra Time, Best said the prospect of New Zealand or France in a quarter-final was the toughest part of Ireland's draw.
The nation has never advanced beyond the last eight, and were knocked out at that stage last year against New Zealand, in what was Best's final game for his country.
While world champions South Africa are clearly the team to beat in Pool B, Ireland will hope they can also get the better of Six Nations rivals Scotland, who they comfortably defeated in their opening game of the 2019 World Cup.
"In terms of the third seeds, Fiji are very much unknown, Argentina look like they've hit a bit of form so I think Scotland or Italy were possibly the two you would have wanted," Best continued.
"So on the face of it, it looks very difficult but I think that Ireland will go 'do you know what, they're two teams that we know we can beat'."
Ireland's World Cup in Japan quickly unravelled after the promising opening win, losing to Japan six days later to ultimately set up a one-sided quarter-final against the All Blacks.
Ireland fell to their seventh World Cup quarter-final defeat in 2019
Best believes the order of Ireland's fixtures could have a significant impact on how successful they are in France in three years.
"There's no doubt in 2019 it was quite tough to play Scotland and then Japan six days later," he said.
"In 2015 Ireland finished with Italy then France and you sort of felt you could build into it but you came off a really tough game to then turn around seven days later to play a quarter-final.
"It's hard to know what the best sequencing is but I think a gap between the so-called top two teams in the group would be the best for Ireland."
Success or failure
Given they are still to make their first semi-final appearance at a World Cup, Ireland's next campaign is only likely to be deemed in any way successful if they advance beyond the last eight.
"There's a lot more made outside of the group of Ireland's failure to make a semi-final than there is within it," said Best, who played in three World Cups.
"It is not reflective of Irish Rugby since they started World Cups in 1987.
"There certainly is baggage there, the players don't necessarily carry it but there's clearly something that Irish teams aren't doing well.
"Whether it's not peaking at the right time every four years, maybe it's the attritional nature of the World Cup versus how we're looked after at home.
"Maybe it's the Irish system and how well we're looked after to peak: Pro14 into two European games, game off, internationals with rest in between it.
"Maybe to play that six, seven games back-to-back, hard tough games, we're maybe just not acclimatised to do that."