Healy and D’Arcy did not travel to Queenstown with the rest of the squad, nursing eye and calf injuries respectively, but after delaying their departure, both have arrived to bolster Declan Kidney’s squad.

It will come as welcome news for Kidney, who saw his side lose their four warm-up matches, and has already been deprived of the services of flanker David Wallace and full-back Felix Jones through injury.

But Healy he has experienced no further complications with his eye injury, and is relishing his side’s opener against the USA – coached by Eddie O’Sullivan, who occupied the Ireland hot-seat between 2001 and 2008.

"The injury has come on fine over the last couple of days and the medical team has been keeping a good watch over it,” he said.

“So I'm just really excited to be finally here and get the chance to get back on the field.

“Talking to some of the squad, they seem to have settled in really well and combined training with some time to relax and get involved in the whole spirit of the tournament. 

“It’s good to get that down time before we pick the pace up this week, so I think the intensity will start to rise now another couple of notches as we look forward to the USA game.”

Centre D'Arcy was a late withdrawal from the travelling party on the very day the team left Dublin after he picked up a calf strain during a recovery session that morning.

He said: “We flew in to a little less fanfare then the squad received, but that’s a small price to pay for just getting the chance to be here and start thinking about our first game against the USA.

"There was a terrible sense of dread for me when the calf tightened up that morning and there was a couple of anxious hours before the scans came through but it showed that it was not too bad and that it would not rule me out of the tournament.

“My focus now is to get it right and get on the field to put myself in contention for selection as soon as possible.”