Robbie on World Cup calls and Ibrox trip

There were big smiles around Riccarton this morning at the news that Cammy Devlin, Kye Rowles, and Nate Atkinson had all been called up to Graham Arnold’s Australia squad for the tournament.
 
It’s a pleasing sight for the manager, who emphasised the role that Hearts played in helping the trio make the finals of the world’s biggest competition.
 
“Yeah, look, we’re absolutely delighted for them,” he said. “They took a chance coming to Hearts, coming over from Australia. You’re always taking a gamble when you come half-way around the world, thankfully, we’ve helped them get to the World Cup, and they’ve helped us.
 
“We’ll have three players going to the World Cup, and I think it’s been a wee while since we’ve had that here. Scotland might not be there, but now there’s a country that we can all watch and support.”
 
The World Cup may be on the horizon, but all attentions are on two massive cinch Premiership games for the men in maroon; starting with a trip to Glasgow to take on Rangers tomorrow night.
 
“Whenever you go to Ibrox, it’s always a difficult game,” he added. “It does not matter if Rangers have won four games in a row or if they’ve lost a few. They’ve got a squad filled with international players, it’ll be a full house, so we’re under no illusions about how tough it’s going to be.
 
“There’s always pressure at Rangers. Just like us and every other club. It’s the nature of football nowadays. Every team is expected to win every game. You can have all the plans you want when you go to Ibrox, until you run out of them.
 
“We’ve got an idea about what we’d like to do and what our gameplan entails. We need to wait and see how the night transpires. Motherwell was a big confidence booster but it’s a whole different ball game when you go to Ibrox.”