
Share
18th September 2015
04:21pm BST

The 31-year-old reflected on the opportunity lost in the 2011 quarter-final against Wales. A Win would have set up a semi-final against France and a potential final tilt with the All Blacks.
"In terms of the pressures of a World Cup," Heaslip began, "well I was asked earlier regarding New Zealand what it was like; this is probably a little bit different in terms of the fact that we had a travelling cavalcade of I don't know how many thousands of Irish turning up in every town that we were in, taking over the place. "At times, the support was overwhelming. "They were around everywhere and it meant we were massively confident going into games. "Here, it's probably not as on the whole time, the fact that we're moving to big cities like London and Cardiff and that side the guys who haven't been to World Cups haven't felt, but in terms of realising the importance of each game I think a lot of lads have experience at European [club rugby] level."Whether it is open or closed, the roof question always crops up in Cardiff. "I really like [the roof being closed]," Heaslip insisted, "it adds to the atmosphere. It gets really, really loud. "I've had some really, really great days out there and some pretty low days. Hopefully we're going to get the outcome we want." It's almost go time.
Explore more on these topics: