Ireland Rugby World Cup Odds

Following their magnificent Grand Slam success in the Six Nations Championship, are now examining the possibility of Ireland adding further silverware when the Rugby World Cup gets underway in France later this year.

After a productive 2022 that saw them winning a Triple Crown, securing a summer series triumph against New Zealand for the first time in their history and finishing the Autumn Nations Series with three consecutive victories, the pressure was on Andy Farrell’s side to continue on an upward trend in 2023.

Going back to the last World Cup year in 2019, it was felt that Ireland - then under the guidance of Joe Schmidt - had reached their peak the previous autumn with a November international win over the All Blacks. 

They had also accrued a Grand Slam earlier in the same year and claimed a 2-1 test victory on another summer tour to Australia.

Farrell Producing The Goods In First Head Coach Role

Any fear that Ireland were going to repeat the difficult spring of 2019 - where they suffered chastening defeats to England and Wales - were well and truly evaporated, however. 

Coming into the 2023 Six Nations as the one of the favourites on , the Green Army claimed five wins on the bounce to complete a full sweep of Championship honours.

This was a major achievement for Farrell, who took over from Schmidt in the aftermath of the World Cup of 2019. 

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It was his first time stepping into the role of head coach and he has shown himself to be more than capable of making the step up, securing a historic fourth Grand Slam for Ireland in the process.

While he has plenty of reason to be happy with the achievement of the past few weeks on a personal level, he is already looking at ways for his squad to grow as a group. 

Back in 2007, he was part of an England set-up (as a player) that reached a World Cup final in France.

Ireland Now Third In World Cup Betting

He would dearly love to do something similar with his adopted nation and having found themselves as fourth favourites in the aftermath of last year’s series victory in New Zealand, Ireland are now third in the prices for global glory in the eyes of .

This keeps them behind host nation France and the All Blacks, one of which Ireland will most likely face at the quarter-final stage of the World Cup. 

Despite being top of the World Rugby ranking system, there is no denying that the French and New Zealand have the stronger pedigree in the tournament.

The current Irish side seem the best equipped to finally reach the semi-finals, but there will be lingering doubts until they do so.

Nonetheless, the odds on Ireland winning the Webb Ellis Cup are relatively short with BetVictor rating them as a 9/2 possibility to reach the promised land this coming autumn. 

Tough Games For Ireland In Pool Stage Of World Cup

The pool stages of the tournament won’t necessarily be plain sailing for Ireland with current world champions South Africa and a vastly-improving Scotland providing the opposition in the closing two rounds. 

While there might be an opportunity to experiment in earlier games against Romania and Tonga, they will most likely need to be locked and loaded for those latter fixtures to justify their odds sites.

Sexton Hoping For Perfect World Cup Send-Off

Although team captain Jonathan Sexton was given the perfect send-off from the Six Nations at the Aviva Stadium last weekend in a Grand Slam-clincher against England, he will be hoping to have a repeat swansong on the World Cup stage as well. 

Despite the fact he is set to turn 38 this July, Sexton remains one of the most influential out-halves in international rugby.

He did miss one game in this year’s Championship (the third round trip to Italy) because of injury, but Ireland have shown remarkable resilience to overcome a host of absentees and still come out on the right side of the result.

If they are to make a big impact at the World Cup, then Farrell will need to eke every last ounce from his charges - both from a physical and mental perspective.