Ireland's rugby league players will continue their pursuit of three once-unlikely dreams at Tolka Park tonight.

They want to become the first Irish representative side to reach a World Cup semi-final in any sport; to earn a place in this country's affections; and to book a private party with the Saw Doctors as their hosts and entertainers. "The Saw Doctors sent us a fax promising that if we win the World Cup they'll put on a concert in Tuam, Co Galway, just for us," revealed an Irish official. Victory tonight against a potentially powerful Maori team, in what was always likely to be Group Four's pivotal game, would see Ireland qualify as group winners and guarantee a blood-and-thunder quarterfinal clash with England at Headingley, Leeds, next Saturday. And there are plenty of seasoned rugby league watchers who claim the Ireland team would have a realistic chance of edging out England and making it to the semi-finals.

But for Ralph Rimmer, Ireland team manager, it is one game at a time. "We have to beat the Maoris first and we know that is going to be a very tough assignment," he says.

"But this competition is more than just a case of our players coming together, having a good time and maybe winning a medal. In the match against the Maoris, our players have the key to open the door to an exciting future for rugby league in Ireland. "It's 10 years since rugby league was first played here and we've already come to this. But we don't want to stop."

Tonight's will be the last game to be staged in Dublin in this tournament, but there are other matches pencilled in. It's likely the Australian tourists will stop off next autumn for a Test match against this Ireland team. And officials in England are considering the possible entry of an Irish club side into the English Northern premiership - the league below the fully-professional Super League.

"We have to make sure we are a winning side first," says Rimmer. "We're hoping for a crowd of four or five thousand tonight. That would be more than just a foot in the door, that would prove we're beginning to establish ourselves."

Ireland hope to name the same 13 players who started Wednesday's match against Scotland. But stand-off Tommy Martyn and centre Michael Eager face late fitness tests on leg injuries.

Meanwhile, the sponsors of the Wales team are threatening legal action after they were not allowed into Stradey Park in Wales on Thursday over a row over their Internet coverage.

Officials became concerned about the Sportal website's claim that they were providing "live commentary" from games as Sportal, though a sponsor, are not the official World Cup website and are providing a text-only service.

Officials forced the company to make these facts clear in their advertisements before allowing them entry into Wednesday's clash between England and Russia. But even that wasn't enough and the Sportal representative at Stradey Park was told that unless the organisation made further changes to their site, he would be refused entry.

Sportal refused to back down and their reporter instead paid his way into the stadium.