WITH THE SUN shining and 12,000 people roaring their welcome to Tours, it was clear how much the Irish players were enjoying events at Stade de la Vallée du Cher this morning.
There was a booming Viking Clap led by some of the players, Andrew Porter got hold of a drum at one stage, and Johnny Sexton did an interview in French over the tannoy.
They asked him to pick a French song to be blasted out and Sexton went for ’Les Champs-Elysées.’ Good choice, Johnny.
The Irish players sang along with the massive crowd in what was a party atmosphere. The craic, it’s fair to say, was 90 at the Vallée du Cher.
It was supposed to be an open training session but Ireland didn’t actually train due to the pitch being in poor condition. It didn’t look like a surface fit for a World Cup team. A statement from tournament organisers explained that the pitch in Vallée du Cher “suffered some damage in recent days, caused by a fungus.”
The risk of injury was too high and so, Andy Farrell’s team posed for their team photo, kicked a football around, signed autographs, and met the fans, as well as doing a light warm-up.
After an hour, they headed back to their own training base at Stade de la Chambrerie to actually train. Ireland are delighted with the facilities there, where they will do all their training. The gym, pitch, and changing rooms are said to be top-class.
Ireland would be entitled to be frustrated about the surface at Vallée du Cher, but it’s understood that when the possibility of cancelling the session altogether was raised yesterday, Farrell insisted on this morning’s meet-and-greet going ahead.
A week out from their Pool B opener against Romania, he wanted his players to get a taste of the excitement this World Cup has created in France.
He’s happy with the set-up in Tours.
“It’s fantastic,” said Farrell as his players met the locals. “There’s a lot of work that goes into it. Two years in the planning, it starts off on a recce and you’ve got to make a choice. By far and away, we felt as a management that the city of Tours wanted us to be here.
“But when somebody wants you and they prove that with their actions, then the relationships build. We’re delighted how we’ve been treated so far from the people of Tours, the hotel, etc.
“It’s a nice start getting into the country and also this is what World Cups are all about, making sure you understand what it’s all about on the ground and understanding the people.”
While enjoying the welcome, Ireland are continuing with their hard work as they build towards next Saturday’s clash with Romania.
On the injury front, Dave Kilcoyne [hamstring] and Rónan Kelleher [hamstring] are fit to face The Oaks in Bordeaux, there’s optimism for Jack Conan [foot], but Dan Sheehan [foot] looks less likely to be involved.
“We’ve yet to see,” said Farrell when asked about the timeline for Sheehan’s return.
“He’s back running well ahead of schedule. It all starts off on an AlterG [anti-gravity treadmill] to see whether they can cope with running, etc. and he was back running last week. He was flying along yesterday with the physios so he’s certainly bullish within himself and so are the medics as well.
“Jack trained yesterday and again like any stage in rehab, it always depends on how he backs it up the next day, so we’ll see how it goes today.
“Rónan was fit last week so he’s certainly fit to go. He did a full session yesterday so he’ll back that up again today. Dave Kilcoyne is exactly the same as Rónan, fit and well.”