Based on suggestions a shortlist of names for each position was posted daily and saw 160,000 votes being cast. The final 15 is below and would certainly be equipped to compete on the world stage.

2011 RUGBY WORLD CUP DREAM TEAM:

15 - Israel Dagg (New Zealand)

14 - Cory Jane (New Zealand)

13 – Brian O’Driscoll (Ireland)

Ireland captain O’Driscoll took nearly 50% of the votes to make the Dream Team. A consistent performer for Ireland, O’Driscoll added to his impressive tally of international tries with a well-taken try in the must win pool match against Italy.

12 - Jamie Roberts (Wales)

11 - Richard Kahui (New Zealand)

10 – Ronan O’Gara (Ireland)

The second Irish player to make the Dream Team, O’Gara earned his place after scoring 44 points during the tournament. His cool head and calmness under pressure make him a valuable addition to the side.

9 - Mike Phillips (Wales)

1 - Jean-Baptiste Poux (France)

2 - Keven Mealamu (New Zealand)

3 - Owen Franks (New Zealand)

4 - Brad Thorn (New Zealand)

5 – Paul O’Connell (Ireland)

Voted man-of-the-match in Ireland’s first match of the 2011 Rugby World Cup against the USA, O’Connell was the overwhelming favourite for the number 5 shirt in the Dream Team. Appearing in his third World Cup tournament, O’Connell was the heartbeat of the Irish side in their run to the quarter-finals.

6 - Thierry Dusautoir (France)

7 - Richie McCaw (New Zealand)

8 - Imanol Harinordoquy (France)

Read the article here…

The long standing injury to his neck and shoulder mean he is most likely out of Ireland’s 2012 RBS 6 Nations as well as most of Leinster’s Heineken Cup title defence.

O’Driscoll admist that he’s dreading the thought of leaving and not being part of a team:

“Throughout the years, I heard lads talking about the end of their careers and how much they were missing the camaraderie and the craic, and I was thinking they were exaggerating.

“I was saying, ‘That’s a bit too much man love’, but I can see it now. I can see what they were talking about.

“I’ve spent over a third of my life playing professional rugby, so it’s going to have a huge impact when the day comes that I’m not doing it anymore – and I’m dreading it. I see guys who were hugely popular with Leinster over the years, John Fogarty, Malcolm O’Kelly and others, and because they’re not part of everyday training they just can’t have that connection.

“They’re still tied to certain people, but not the team as a whole. That’s all gone.”

O’Driscoll has captain the team to the Six Nations, a Grand Slam and a Triple Crown and has led Leicester to two Heineken Cup titles…. However he still wants more….

“For me, the inspiration is about trying to be the best that you can be, trying to show those who doubt me, the people who think I’m over the hill, that I still have it…I don’t want to be someone who just petered off towards the end of his career, I want to go out on a high”.

O’Driscoll’s 45th try moved Ireland to 17-9 in the second half and with players all stepping up tot he mark the space was created for Keith Earls to celebrate his 24th birthday with two-tries. O’Gara added four penalties and two conversion to take his points tally to 16. Sexton on as a replacement for O’Gara also added a conversion and a penalty.

A front row of Healy, Best and Ross was more than a match for the expected struggle in the scrum and the back row of O’Brien, Ferris and Heaslip were dominant throughout.

The unlucky player of the night was Tommy Bowe, who had a first half try disallowed and went so very close to scoring in a frenzied second half!

Nobody really cares which way Ireland do it, all of the above work as results on Sunday which would see Ireland go through to the knockout stages. The euphoria of that win over Australia is over, it’s time to knuckle down. We always knew that the Australia game would be a challenge, but really it was always going to come down to the game against Italy.

Italy know what they have to do, they plan on dominating the scrum and not letting Ireland play a running game. We’ve heard this talk before but this time (despite all the pre-match chatter), Kidney is aware that Italy could do this.

Experience comes in the form of O’Gara at fly-half, the playmaker will be expected to control the game, but Kidney has sprung a surprise by offering Conor Murray only his second international start at scrum-half

O’Driscoll who sat out the Russia game, will return to captain the team and he has absolute faith in Murray:

“He’s new but he’s dealing with it extremely well. He’s a confident young man, very much in his depth in the surroundings and you wouldn’t know he has a handful, not even a handful, of Tests under his belt.”

The pack is unchanged from the team that beat Australia, although O’Connell will undergo a late test on his hamstring. Leo Cullen who captain the win over Russia will be on standby to step in.

Andrea Masi returns to the Italy side after a calf muscle injury forced his late withdrawal from their win over the United States (McLean drops to the bench to make way for Masi).

IRELAND Team & Replacements (v Italy, 2011 Rugby World Cup Pool C, Otago Stadium, Sunday, October 2, kick-off 8.30pm local time/8.30am Irish time):

15 - Rob Kearney (UCD/Leinster)
14 - Tommy Bowe (Ospreys)
13 - Brian O’Driscoll (UCD/Leinster) (capt)
12 - Gordon D’Arcy (Lansdowne/Leinster)
11 - Keith Earls (Young Munster/Munster)
10 - Ronan O’Gara (Cork Constitution/Munster)
9 - Conor Murray (Garryowen/Munster)
1 - Cian Healy (Clontarf/Leinster)
2 - Rory Best (Banbridge/Ulster)
3 - Mike Ross (Clontarf/Leinster)
4 - Donncha O’Callaghan (Cork Constitution/Munster)
5 - Paul O’Connell (Young Munster/Munster)
6 - Stephen Ferris (Dungannon/Ulster)
7 - Sean O’Brien (Clontarf/Leinster)
8 - Jamie Heaslip (Naas/Leinster)

Replacements:

16 - Sean Cronin (Leinster)
17 - Tom Court (Malone/Ulster)
18 - Donnacha Ryan (Shannon/Munster)
19 - Denis Leamy (Cork Constitution/Munster)
20 - Eoin Reddan (Lansdowne/Leinster)
21 - Jonathan Sexton (St. Mary’s College/Leinster)
22 - Andrew Trimble (Ballymena/Ulster)

Italy team

Andrea Masi; Tommaso Benvenuti, Gonzalo Canale, Gonzalo Garcia, Mirco Bergamasco; Luciano Orquera, Fabio Semenzato; Sergio Parisse (captain), Mauro Bergamasco, Alessandro Zanni, Cornelius van Zyl, Quintin Geldenhuys, Martin Castrogiovanni, Leonardo Ghiraldini, Salvatore Perugini. Reserves: Fabio Ongaro, Andrea Lo Cicero, Marco Bortolami, Paul Derbyshire, Edoardo Gori, Riccardo Bocchino, Luke McLean.

Sexton finally scored his third penalty (what is it about this ball and kickers in this RWC?) and the score remained at 3-0 until the dying seconds of the first half  when Tommy Bowe crossed the line after taking an inside pass from Sexton to score the 17th of his Irish career. Sexton converted to end the half 10-0.

Paterson was to kick the Eagles first points of the second half, only to see Best peel off from a maul in the 56th minute and charge over the line, then O’Gara miss the conversion.

Three minutes later quick ball (finally) through the Irish backline saw O’Driscoll passing back inside for Bowe to get a second, this time O’Gara found his mark to get the extras.

Ireland’s attention focussed on what could be a very lucrative bonus point if they could find it….

However, a loose pass from Gordon D’Arcy allowed Paul Emerick to intercept and race for the line to score a try for the Eagles.

O’Driscoll will return after missing the last two defeats against Scotland and France in what seems to be an almost full strength Ireland squad.

D’Arcy gets his first game of the season, moving Earls from centre on to the left wing. O’Brien will move to number six with Heaslip and O’Connell to start. Stephen Ferris returning after a serious knee injury in January is named in the replacements.

The hotly contested half-back partnership is made up of Sexton and O’Leary this time.

Kearney is not included after his groin injury at the weekend but should be back in training by the end of the week. Bowe has been involved in full training but sits out this one.

With Kidney naming his squad on Monday this is the last chance to make an impression for some players, as you’d have to expect Kidney to have most of the team already inked in.

He turned down an offer to play in Australia and stayed loyal to his home-town team…

“I have a wife with her own profession that I have to consider. On top of that, we’ve built something special at Leinster and that was a big component in my re-signing. In the end it was a bit of a no-brainer.”

The Ireland scrum took apart England and a back row of Sean O’Brien, David Wallace and Jamie Heaslip ripped into the breakdown, carrying with intensity that Englands youngsters could not match. Tommy Bowe, Keith Earl and Andrew Trimble looked dangerous every time the back three entered the attacking line.

Ireland took the lead early on as Sexton, back in over O’Gara at fly-half struck a penalty after the visitors were offside at the line-out. Doubling this lead when Chris Ashton was penalised for a high tackle on Sexton who duly converted for his second.

Turning over possession by preventing the England carriers getting to the ground and playing with pace and width were the order of the day.

What looked a great try was ruled forward with Tommy Bowe’s final pass to O’Driscoll, which would have taken O’Driscoll over the threshold and into the top try-scorer in the history of the Five and Six Nations. However Ireland had been awarded an advantage and promptly let Sexton take them 9 points ahead of a scoreless England in the first quarter.

England replaced an injured Tom Palmer with Simon Shaw but still didn’t seem to register in attack, they finally earned a kickable penalty only for Flood to kick it badly wide. This mistake was compounded as Ben Foden was forced into a desperate defensive kick and Heaslip carried back.

An entire England defence was off-side and Sexton tapped another penalty to commit the defence before sending Bowe over the line. Sexton missed the conversion but with half an hour gone England never looked like going near the grand slam!

Finally England registered on the board with a Flood penalty, only to see a bad half get worse with Ben Youngs sin-binned after conceding a silly penalty at a scrum, when David Wallace charged down the line Youngs edged him into touch and then threw the ball into the crowd. Ten minutes rest for him.

Sexton wasn’t about to miss again, and Ireland were 17-3 up at half time.

It took just seven minutes into the second half before O’Driscoll got his record breaking 25th-try after sweeping move saw him round Louis Deacon in the corner. Fields of Athenry were silenced just long enough for Sexton to drive over the conversion and make it 24-3

Replacement hooker Steve Thompson intercepted a Reddan pass and scampered over from 40m out, but Wilkinson could not convert. As the game continued England had increasing possession but could not score and their Grand Slam hopes slowly disappeared.