Ireland are about to discover whether they made a mega-mistake in leaving Geordan Murphy out of their team for the first three Pool D games.

The attack-minded Leicester fullback is rumoured to have been on the verge of walking out on the squad when he failed to make the team from the off. And it is only because of Girvan Dempsey’s collarbone injury that he finally gets his chance in the crucial clash with Argentina at the Parc des Princes on Sunday

Ireland's flimsy hopes of qualifying for the quarter-finals hang on scoring four tries and winning by seven points or more to prevent the Pumas picking up a crucial losers’ bonus point. It’s a tall order and realistically it looks as if Argentina and France will be the teams to progress from the so-called 'Pool of Death.' Unless, that is, the exceedingly unlikely happens and France lose to Georgia in Marseilles on the same day.

'If Ireland can reproduce the sort of form they showed in the 43-13 thrashing of England (Jonny Wilkinson and all) at Croke Park in February, anything can happen on Sunday'


But Murphy, whose sole involvement in the tournament so far has been as a 30-second replacement against Namibia, is confident he can make an impact - even though his attacking prowess is not always matched by defensive reliability.

"It was obviously disappointing not to be picked,'' he admitted. ''It is up to the individual to stay upbeat and I am very happy to be back and involved in such a huge game. It is very easy to sap energy from the squad if you are negative."

The big question is whether Ireland, who scraped home 14-10 against minnows Georgia before being caned 25-3 by the French, have enough confidence left to be positive. Certainly Felipe Contepomi, the Irish-based Argentina centre, thinks Brian O’Driscoll’s men will be like wounded animals. "We always say that we prefer teams whose confidence is high, like France," insisted the Leinster star.

One thing is for sure - Ireland can’t get any worse. And if they can reproduce the sort of form they showed in the 43-13 thrashing of England (Jonny Wilkinson and all) at Croke Park in February, anything can happen on Sunday. At least 12 of the heroes of that historic Six Nations clash will start against Argentina and the big mystery is what has gone wrong with what is essentially the same team that everyone thought would be a major threat to the Tri Nations giants.

They say a good team doesn’t become a bad one overnight. Or even in a few weeks. But that’s exactly what has happened to Eddie O’Sullivan’s fallen green giants. And it’s doubtful we will ever know the reason why.

Australia are banking on star fly-half Stephen Larkham making a quick recovery from knee surgery rather than put a replacement on stand-by for the later stages of the tounrnament. Larkham has just come out of hospital after a second arthroscopy in eight days and is aiming to be available for a potential semi-final showdown with New Zealand on October 13.

Wallabies coach John Connolly said there was no need to weigh up replacement options until team medics could review his recovery on Monday. But with a back-up player of the talent of young Berrick Barnes, who stood in brilliantly for Larkham in the key Pool B victory over Wales, already in the squad, I haven’t a clue why they are even thinking about bringing in an extra body.

Barnes won’t play in Sunday's final pool match against Canada in Bordeaux, for which the Wallabies are expected to field a weakened side, particularly in the forward engine-room.

Georgia, with Tonga the biggest and most popular successes of the smaller nations, chalked up their first-ever World Cup win when they caned Namibia 30-0 on Wednesday.

"This match was not just a victory, it was of great importance to us," said Georgia coach Malkhaz Cheishvili. "Everyone really invested in this game to attain this goal and I would like to congratulate everyone for their performance. In Georgia we do as much as we can to move rugby forward. With financial assistance we could do far more than we do now."

While the Georgians still have a tasty finale ahead against France ahead of them, the poor Namibians go home with the memory of four defeats, 212 points conceded - and an experience that every one of their players will savour for the rest of his life.

That’s what the game’s most prestigious tournament is about for the little teams. It’s wonderful to win - but just taking part is the ultimate experience.

Canada coach Ric Suggitt seems to have a weird attitude to getting decisions right. He reckons referee Jonathan Kaplan should have automatically awarded a try when captain Morgan Williams touched down what would have been the winning score against Japan. Instead, the top South African official went to the video ref, who disallowed the score.

Said Suggitt, whose men had to settle for a 12-12 draw in the battle of the Pool B minnows: "We've been hit a couple of times now in the tournament and I think the referees need to start taking ownership of the calls. We've been screwed there, it's clearly a try and I don't know why he can't make the call - he was standing right there.’’

Pardon me, Ric, but I reckon referees should ALWAYS use the TMO, no matter how certain they are that a try has been scored. They invariably do in Rugby League - and there is always the possibility that something illegal in the build-up has escaped the officials’ attention. The human eye is not a patch on slow-mo video, and although I didn’t personally see the incident in question, if the playback showed no try, then that’s much better than Kaplan awarding one and then being proved wrong.

Meanwhile, Japan’s coach John Kirwan, who scarcely knew the meaning of defeat during his illustrious All Blacks playing career, described the stalemate with the Canadians as ‘’bittersweet’’. The result ensured that neither team goes home with the same depressing losing sequence as the Namibians and Kirwan said: "I think that we showed a lot of courage. But we could have played a lot better.’’

Portugal came within nine minutes of a historic victory in their first World Cup - but were finally ground down by Romania’s superior power in a 14-10 defeat. Asked if they can improve in 2011, retiring skipper Joaquim Ferreira simply said: "We must, we must." But I’ll wager that he’d also be happy if the World Cup’s lustiest national anthem singers just manage to qualify again.

Meanwhile, eliminated Samoa picked up their first win with a scrappy 25-21 success over the United States, who go home winless in Pool A.

Which of the so-called minnows have entertained you the most? Leave your comments below - or submit an article to Sportingo if you prefer.