Focus turns to RWC warm-ups in Ireland camp

Week two of block two is complete in Ireland's Rugby World Cup training camp. When they return to Carton House on Sunday 30 July they'll be into their opening game week, and the real business will begin.

It may still be seven weeks until Andy Farrell's side take to the field at the Nouveau Stade de Bordeaux for their Pool B opener against Romania, but the three warm-up games against Italy (5 August), England (19 August) and Samoa (26 August) represent a chance for several of the wider players in the squad to put their hand up and stake their claim for a place in the final 33-man squad.

Since gathering at the High Performance Centre in Dublin in the middle of June, Ireland's squad have broken up their camp into blocks; two weeks together in camp before a week of downtime, followed by the latest fortnight of preparation.

They parted again on Friday, a chance to recharge the batteries and decompress from the intensity of World Cup preparation. While it's not a week in camp, it's also not a week off.

"We still have to do stuff pretty much every day next week," utility-back Jimmy O'Brien (below) says of the upcoming week.

Each player will still have their training programmes and GPS units. Some will train individually, others will meet up in groups of two and three to get their sessions in over the week.

"It's been nice breaking it up. It can be pretty intense, long days, so it's nice to go off and train by yourself, or there's a few lads around and you'd go training with them. It's more chilled but you're still doing the work. You train in the mornings and have the afternoons free, so it's nice.

"We're straight into match week the week after so you have to stay on top of it," he added.

Breaking the camp up into chunks is as much