Wales, quarter-finalists in the 2003 tournament, should repeat that achievement in some three and a half years time.

They have been drawn with Australia, who knocked them out in a tight 1999 quarter-final, and three qualifiers, who are likely to be Fiji, Canada and Japan.

The tournament structure gives Wales an added bonus, with two of their group games and their quarter-final - if they progress to the knock-out stages - set to be played in Cardiff.

The Australia game would be an obvious one for the Millennium Stadium, but it is a potential quarter-final with world champions England that will set pulses racing in the Principality.

I think it is a very exciting draw, said Ruddock, who attended Wednesday's draw in one of his first official engagements as Wales coaching successor to New Zealander Steve Hansen.

It looks as though there will be some games in Wales, and that could be quite critical in terms of our ambition of progressing to the quarter-finals.

Wales won many admirers for their style of play at the last World Cup when they produced some thrilling running rugby against both New Zealand and England, pushing those two giants of the game to the wire.

And Ruddock, whose first task will be a difficult summer tour of Argentina and South Africa, has vowed to continue with that style.

It is a style of rugby I would like to see us continue playing, and that will be my message to the players, he added.

We need to tighten up a little bit more up front, and perhaps have a bit more of an aggressive defence, then hopefully we can become a very good team.

Ruddock revealed he is not unduly concerned by star players such as Gareth Thomas and Stephen Jones quitting Welsh domestic rugby for club careers in France.

We'd like to have all our best players in Wales, but these guys are still available to us, and we will get them back for training sessions and training camps.

Ruddock is set to announce his squad for the summer tour early next week, and there will be an immediate test of resources given that up to a dozen players could miss the trip through injury.

However, it will give him an excellent chance to run the rule over possible young contenders for his World Cup campaign in just over three years time.