World Cup in brief: Cuttita drills pack to keep eye on Romania forwards

Massimo Cuttita in his playing days (GETTY IMAGES)

Massimo Cuttita, once the formidable mainstay of the Italian pack, has drilled Scotland's forwards to ensure they suffer no surprises against Romania in Invercargill tomorrow in the first Pool B game.

Scotland have the opportunity to find their feet with two wins – they play Georgia on Tuesday – against the pool minnows before matches with Argentina and England that will determine whether they reach the last eight for the seventh successive tournament.

Any challenge that the eastern Europeans are likely to provide to the Scots will come up front and Cuttitta, who was appointed forwards coach by Andy Robinson, has spent the time since the squad arrived on South Island fine-tuning the pack.

Robinson said: "We've been, with Massimo, working really hard to develop our scrum and it's something I think is improving well. The guys are looking forward to showing that."

Behind the pack Chris Paterson, who did not miss a kick four years ago, will feature in his fourth World Cup.

Healy sidelined for opener against US

Ireland were forced to rule Cian Healy out of their World Cup opener against the United States shortly after arriving in New Plymouth yesterday.

Healy has recovered from the eye injury sustained during the 20-9 defeat by England in the final match of last month's warm-up Tests but has yet to begin contact work.

The 23-year-old Leinster prop will return to full training this weekend and should be available to face Australia in Auckland on Saturday week.

Trinh-Duc: Let's be pragmatic

"Winning ugly" is an alien concept in French rugby, but fly-half François Trinh-Duc is happy for the French to shed a little of their flair if it brings World Cup success.

"You have to be pragmatic, which has notably been the strength of teams that have won the last World Cups, England and South Africa," Trinh-Duc said yesterday, ahead of France's opener against Japan tomorrow. "Obviously that's not our trademark, but we want to win a World Cup like them."