They were forced to fly at the back of the plane to Australia but Ireland's unheralded rugby league squad believe they can finish at the sharp end of the World Cup.

The Wolfhounds arrived in Sydney today to little fanfare, with even the keenest fan struggling to identify a player from a squad largely comprising England and Australian-born players with Irish ancestry.

But, despite their lack of star quality, the tourists — packed into economy class while their England counterparts travelled business class on the same flight — are confident of overcoming Tonga and Samoa in the pool stages to reach the last four.

"Ambitions allow us to dream of (being) World Cup winners and things like that but realistically, if we get over Tonga and Samoa, we could look at a semi-final berth," said upbeat coach Andy Kelly.

"They are massively physical (sides). (We'll) use a little bit of brain and agility and hopefully we've got enough about us to come up with the right gameplan and enthusiasm to be a good representative Ireland side and get beyond
this group stage.

"We're here to be a big part of the World Cup and to be a big part we can't whimper in and whimper out.

"We're going to have a go at all the games. We'll have a go at entertaining people and playing football and we'll show the true Irish spirit."

Ireland suffered a massive blow prior to their arrival with Melbourne prop Brett White pulling out of the squad due to injury.

That leaves Wigan's Pat Richards, formerly of Wests Tigers, as the highest-profile player in a squad containing three players from the fledgling Irish domestic competition.

"It's [rugby league in Ireland] in its infancy. We're at a real junior stage and we're hoping this will be a real fillip for us to push forward," Kelly said.

"It will grow in strength and maybe in another six years we'll see a bigger representation of first generation Irish players.

"As it is now, we still call on the heritage players to represent us and represent us proudly."

Ireland's status was reflected in the seating arrangements en route to Sydney but Kelly had no problem sitting in 'cattle class' while England were waited on in business class.

He said: "We've learnt to live with that a little bit with Ireland. We can't match up to the funding that other (countries) get.

"If we have to sit at the back of the plane then that's fine."