Andy Farrell shares thoughts on World Cup pool

Ireland head coach Andy Farrell is upbeat about the prospect of his team facing the World Champion Springboks in the pool stages of the 2023 World Cup.

"It's fantastic. You're always going to judge yourself against the best and in this moment in time, South Africa are number one in the world and rightly so," Farrell said.

"That's a great challenge for us and obviously the rest of the group is pretty similar to the last World Cup, regarding Scotland being in there and we'll look at how the other draws shape up.

"But it looks like similar types of teams that have been in the last World Cup that we could be coming up against again.

"Obviously, with the world number one South Africans thrown in there, rather than the hosts Japan in the last World Cup, it's certainly something that gets you thinking about next steps and the journey ahead."

Ireland will be looking to improve on what was, in the end, a disappointing campaign in 2019 as they crashed out of the tournament in the quarter-finals.

Ireland will also find themselves facing age-old rivals Scotland in the same pool.

"We get to play Scotland every single year and the rivalry will continue which is a great, strong rivalry," Farrell continued.

"South Africa, it looks like we might get to play them in one of the autumn internationals. Nothing's been confirmed yet but it looks like we might get to play them once before the World Cup, which would be great.

"But obviously there's a Lions tour that's shaping up for the summer of next year and that could be a big opportunity for our boys."