Murray Kinsella reports from St. George’s Park
EVERY RUGBY SQUAD needs its big characters, the men and women who keep spirits high, relentlessly take the piss out of their teammates and generally put a pin into the pressure valve.
Ireland have a fair few of their own, although Conor Murray immediately points to the ‘Tullow Tank’ when we ask him who has been leading the stakes in terms of craic on this particular tour.
“Seanie O’Brien is the MC on the bus and all that, so he’s keeping us entertained at the moment,” says Murray. “There’s all sorts of characters.”
Sean Cronin has been getting the laughs too, while Paul O’Connell has a strong ability to relax the game face we on the outside of the group are accustomed to seeing.
Maintaining a positive atmosphere within the group is paramount to success. Ireland and every other team at the World Cup recognise this and have ensured their off-the-field matters are well taken care of.
It’s been all the more important this week in St. George’s Park, which has stunning training facilities but not a whole lot to do outside of that. Buried in the Staffordshire countryside, Ireland’s players have had to keep themselves occupied.
“We have a fining committee, an entertainment committee, everyone has a role in something,” says Murray. “That might be to sort our movies, Jamie (Heaslip) and Cian Healy with the coffee, there’s something assigned to everybody.
“Cian and Jamie have been looking after the coffee needs on this trip. We have a great set-up over in the team room. I think it’s Jamie’s job to make sure we have nice cafés to go to wherever we’re staying, or else he’ll get fined.
“We’ve got the team room with fussball and table tennis and things like that, so there’s movie nights and plenty to keep us going.”
Today has provided Ireland’s players with the chance to get away from St. George’s Park, some taking a trip to the nearby Alton Towers, others playing golf at the Belfry, another group going shooting and a further contingent heading for Birmingham to check out the city.
They will all get away, but rugby will stay at the forefront of their minds ahead of Sunday’s clash with Romania at Wembley. Some might even train on this off day.
“It’s a down day,” says Murray. “We trained pretty hard (yesterday) morning, it was an intense session. There’s a few options for players just to rest up or head into town to have a coffee.
“It’s the usual down day in a match week, it’s completely individualised. If people need to maybe get another hit in the gym or take time of their feet or just get away from the hotel and switch off, it’s up to everyone I suppose.
“I’m on (the group that organises) activities on days off, finding things to do when we have down time. There’s four of five of us on it, so I can share the workload. I haven’t organised anything!”
The players and staff alike have professed their delight with the training week at the £105 million St. George’s Park, but one senses that many of them will be looking forward to getting into London this weekend and soaking up the big city vibes after a quiet week.
Murray is staying fully focused, even though Eoin Reddan is set to start at scrum-half against the Romanians. With only two of them in the squad, Murray is prepared to play every weekend.
“I suppose mentally you have to prepare like that,” says Murray, “and all going well you should be involved in most games if not all of them. It doesn’t change for me or Eoin during the week, we’re both preparing for a Test match at the weekend.
“If there were three or four scrum-halves in here we would be doing the same thing, because anyone can be called to slot in at any point. You have to slot in without disrupting the team.”
The preparation has been world-class, now Ireland will look to produce a world-class performance on Sunday in Wembley. O’Brien and O’Connell will have their game faces back on by that stage.
