As Ireland are preparing to go where no Irish team has been in a Rugby World Cup in September, a reddit user The_Kwjibo has redrawn the pool stages of the World Cup had it been based on current world rankings, and not the rankings when the draw was made several years ago.
In that time, Ireland were ranked as 2nd seeds, and given our now lofty ranking of third - one could be forgiven for think that it would be a nice easier group.
Not so, and then some. Ireland are currently in a nice group with the declining France and stuttering Italy, while Romania and Canada aren't the worst of the fourth or fifth seeds to be drawn against.
However, in the new draw - Ireland look to have gotten close to the worst draw of second, third and fourth seeds:
In this scenario - Ireland still draw Italy, but as fourth seeds instead of third as they currently are - while Australia and Samoa represent much tougher challenges compared to France and Canada.
You'd still fancy Ireland's chances of making it out of that group, but with either France or South Africa to come in the quarter finals - it doesn't look anywhere near as promising as the current path to the final.
What's interesting is that England, Wales and Fiji are all still drawn together, just without Australia and Uruguay - emphasising how difficult that pool will be come September.
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