Ireland - Rugby World Cup Team Stats
Ireland have reached the quarter- final stage in four of the five world cups but not won any of them.
They have been beaten in the quarter- finals by Australia twice and France twice.
They have played Australia four times in the world cup and not beaten them, but they have lost twice by a single point.
Their biggest disappointment was the 19-18 loss to eventual champions Australia in 1991 when they were minutes from a famous victory and Michael Lynagh scored the match winning try for the Aussies.
Ireland’s biggest world cup victory is the 64-7 defeat of Sunday’s rivals Namibia in 2003.
Their heaviest defeat was the 43-19 loss to New Zealand in the opening game of the 1995 world cup.France beat them 43-21 in the quarter finals of 2003.
David Humphreys has scored most points in a world cup match for Ireland scoring 24 against Argentina in 1999.
He has also kicked the most penalties for Ireland in one match with 7 in the above game.
Ronan O’Gara kicked an Irish world cup record 7 conversions against Namibia in 2003.
David Humphreys has scored more world cup points for Ireland than any other player with 70 in 8 matches in 1999 and 2003.
Ralph Keyes was top points scorer in the competition in 1991 and scored 68 points in only 4 matches.
Ireland have dropped 7 goals in all world cups and nobody has scored more than one.
Ireland are the only team other than New Zealand to have more than one player score at least four tries in a game.Brian Robinson scored 4 against Zimbabwe in 1991 and Keith Wood scored 4 against USA in 1999. They are also the only forwards to have scored more than 3 tries in a world cup match from the 12 players that have achieved the feat.
Centre Brendan Mullin scored 3 tries against Tonga in 1987.
No Irish player has ever been sent off in a world cup match but Shane Horgan received a yellow card against Australia in 2003.
Brothers Guy and Simon Easterby both played for Ireland in the 2003 world cup.
After 8 years playing top class rugby league and only making his rugby union debut with Munster in March 2007, Brian Carney will be part of the Irish squad.
