Irish hooker hopes best is yet to come

Hooker Rory Best says Ireland's historic Rugby World Cup victory over Australia will mean nothing if his team does not perform strongly against Russia this weekend.

The Irish head into Sunday's Pool C match in Rotorua high on confidence after defeating the Wallabies for the first time in five Rugby World Cup encounters, including heart-breaking one-point losses in the 1991 quarter-finals and in the 2003 pool phase.

But Best said the men in green needed to keep the momentum going against Russia and Italy in order to top their pool and set up a likely quarter-finals clash with Wales.

"It's very much OK to congratulate each other for a good performance and a good result," said Best, who formed part of the strong Irish front row which smashed the Wallabies scrum in their 15-6 win in Auckland.

"But it means nothing if we don't push on and improve and make sure we show up for our next game with Russia.

"It's important we don't let ourselves down this Sunday.

Standard is set

"I think sometimes the frustrating thing from an Irish point of view is that we've shown in the past that we have these performances in us. The big thing for us now is to show a bit more consistency.

"It can't just be a one-off, that has to be the norm. We have to keep trying to, at a minimum, achieve the standard we were at Saturday night and hopefully try to achieve better each time we take the pitch to play."

Forwards coach Gert Smal said second row Paul O'Connell and centre Gordon D'Arcy, both suffering hamstring injuries, were still in some doubt for the match against RWC debutants Russia.

Wing Tommy Bowe (calf), who scored two tries in the opening match against United States, will undergo scans on Tuesday afternoon but it was "nothing serious".

Smal said that despite Ireland's heroics against Tri Nations champions Australia they would treat Russia with respect on Sunday.

Aggressive preparation

"In the World Cup you can't underestimate anybody. You'll be in for a big surprise if you think you can just walk up for the game and finish it off," he said.

"We've prepared for this game just as aggressively as we would for any other top team."

Best said the Irish were happy to enjoy an eight-day turnaround before facing Russia.

"It's given us a bit more time to recover from what was a big physical effort for this weekend," the 29-year-old Ulster front row said.

"It was a great performance (against Australia) but the important thing now is that the effort we put in on Saturday evening doesn't go unrewarded.

"A big way to reward that is to win our next two games and make sure we top our pool and make sure we get into the quarter-finals."