MUNCHING AN apple in his own inimitably chilled out way, Jamie Heaslip oozed contentment as he basked in the glow of a near-perfect four wins from four pool games.

“I think we’re the first Irish side to do that; it’s nice to do something that hasn’t been done before, despite what was said before the tournament,” he ventured with a smile.

“So I think we’ve proven ourselves as a squad and as a team, and we’re in a good position. We set the goal of getting out of the group, that’s what we’ve done, and now we’re in to cup rugby and we all know what that’s like. It’s about whoever turns up on the day, it’s anyone’s game.”

Not unlike the Welsh, perhaps, Irish sporting moods seem to veer from one extreme to the other, with this Irish team having undertaken the journey from despair to dizzying optimism in a matter of weeks.

The only problem with that, of course, is that like the supporters, the team have raised the bar for themselves.

“We embrace the pressure, you know?” said Heaslip with a smile. “All that pressure and anticipation and want and belief in the team from outsiders, it’s great. We set those same kind of standards and wants and needs ourselves. So to have people believing in us and wanting the same thing and it all being very positive for the majority is fantastic.

“Walking out on that pitch today for the national anthem, man I was actually gobsmacked for the first time ever, because here we are, 12 hours ahead, I don’t know what distance it is – pretty much I think we’re the team that had to travel the most to get here – and that has rivalled home games we’ve played in.

“ I couldn’t believe it. We came out and literally I only saw one small pocket of blue and the rest was just green; green and loud and proud, and it was awesome.”

And they draw off it. “It’s like we’re playing at home here. It must be somewhat uncomfortable for other teams coming out to that, hearing Amhrán na bhFiann and Ireland’s Call and Molly Malone and The Fields of Athenry being sung throughout the whole thing, everyone in a massive party atmosphere. Yeah, it must be uncomfortable for other teams, but it’s awesome for us. It’s great.”

It may also now be no harm at all, at all, that Ireland controversially lost their most recent meeting with Wales in Cardiff by 19-13 last March, courtesy of an illegal try by Mike Phillips. “We’re now in the knock-outs, we’re playing Wales, we know them so well, they know us so well and we want a bit of payback for Cardiff this year,” said Heaslip.

The key to this win over typically feisty, proud and obdurate opponents was, he said, Ireland’s directness. “I think we were very direct. We knew they wouldn’t give us a lot of space out wide, especially off set-piece and first, second phases. So I think we were very direct. It was tough going at the rucks. I was involved in a lot of rucking, purely because they were so aggressive and competitive at the breakdown that they made life hard for us.

“But I think we broke them down there and you could see that at the 50 minute mark, because we were working so hard at being direct and being competitive, particularly at the rucks, that the game just opened up and the backs cut them apart.”

Even when only leading 9-6 at half-time, the Ireland dressingroom was relaxed and assured, according to Heaslip.

“We knew that if we kept the ball and kept our composure and were direct, we’d get our chances. We knew that from the start of the week. That’s what we did, We were good at our set-piece – we knew that was going to be a big battle – Mr Mallett basically threw a red flag in front of the lads at the start of the week and they fronted up like they have been doing for the last couple of weeks.

“Our lineout, I thought, was very good – we’ll have to brush up on our defence – but I’m very proud of the lads.”

Heaslip acknowledged there was plenty of “niggle” in the game, and sensed Italy’s frustration.

“Not that it was defending manhood or anything like that, but as a pack we knew they were going to bring it and we said if anything kicked off we were all in. Nothing kicked off but we definitely fronted up today as a pack and gave our backs some good quality ball after playing one, two, three tight phases then giving them the ball, and then we’d go again and I thought the gameplan we put together worked.”

Heaslip wouldn’t be a devotee of watching other games, though even he hasn’t been able to avoid observing some of the Welsh performances, noting young winger George North is in flying form. “They’ve got some big, direct runners in their backs so they can set very good targets. Yeah, I’m sure we’re going to have our work cut out for us. I see our video analysts recording every game in the team room so I’m sure they have plenty of footage and we’ll be hard at work.

“We’ve a quick turnaround so we’re just going to kind of switch off today and tomorrow, and then it’s back into it.

“It’s new to us that it’s every week you’ve got a Test game, but the cup format is not new to us, so we know we’re into knock-outs now so it’s anyone’s on the day.”