RUGBY DIGEST - U-19 World Cup: Ireland got their campaign off to an excellent start with a 33-7 victory over Italy in the Paris suburb of Sucy last night, thereby avenging last year's defeat by the same opposition.

In a closely contested first half the sides were tied 7-7 at the interval, the Irish try coming on two minutes from Loughborough wing Paul McKenzie and converted by outhalf Barry Keeshan.

The Irish began the second half strongly with captain Anthony Kavanagh crossing for an unconverted try to make it 12-7.

On 53 minutes second row Mark Melbourne grabbed a try which was improved upon by replacement outhalf Gareth Steenson's conversion. The latter also added the extra points to further tries by Greg Stafford and replacement Breffni O'Donnell.

Ireland now play New Zealand at Villejiuf on Sunday afternoon at 2.0 Irish time, an onerous task given that the All Blacks are seeking a third successive title at this age group.

New Zealand's All Blacks have demanded their own chef in case someone tries to poison them, while South Africa's Springboks want to train inside military camps to stop prying rivals from spying on them. There's still six months to go before the World Cup kicks off in Australia but already the top teams are showing signs of nerves.

Six Nations champions England plan to bring a small army of assistants, almost as large as their playing roster, in a bid to end their poor record at rugby's biggest event.

The World Cup's general manager, Matt Carroll, said tournament officials had agreed to the demands and were expecting more when the managers of the 20 teams meet in Sydney next month.

Carroll said the tournament was "on budget and on time" with ticket sales expected to pass the one million mark next week.

Australia's involvement in the war in Iraq and the spread of the deadly SARS virus has had no impact on the event so far, and at least 55,000 tourists are expected to make the trip to Australia during the 44-day event.

"Our market for inbound tourists is from Europe, the United Kingdom, a little bit from the United States and South Africa and New Zealand," he told a news conference yesterday.

"At this stage there's been no impact on the predictions but we'll get a further update at the end of the month."

Carroll said Australian security agents had assessed the tournament as "low risk" but plans were in place to protect certain teams, particularly the British sides and the United States, who play Spain in a two-leg play-off for the final berth.

"No stone has been left unturned in the planning of security for the event," Carroll said.

"The assessment from the Federal Government at this stage is still low risk, there is no direct threat to the tournament and no threat of protest either.

"Different teams, depending on world circumstances at the time, will attract different levels of security."

A try within the last play of the game by Elvis Seveali'i may have saved Bath from the ignominy of relegation from the Zurich Premiership. The former champions looked as if their fate was sealed when London Irish fly-half Barry Everitt dropped a dramatic goal in the 84th minute.

But back came Bath from the restart, winning a scrum. Seveali'i went down the touchline for an 18-15 victory for the West Country side.