Six weeks is a very long time and players have to entertain themselves somehow.
Ireland are hoping for a very long stay at this year’s World Cup, and ahead of the opening game against Canada this afternoon, a few trade secrets of what life is like inside the camp have been leaked.
According to Ronan O’Gara much of the entertainment is based around sticking players on various task or work related committees and seeing how they cope.
The Irish rugby legend has revealed today in his column in the Examiner that during his time in camp with Ireland at Rugby World Cups there were player committees set up to keep up morale in the squad high and make sure players minds were not always 100% on rugby.
The rules could be bad news for Robbie Henshaw and Tadhg Furling if Joe Schmidt decides to keep the same traditions this year,
“The two youngest fellas will have to clean the team bus. There’ll be four or five lads on music for the gym, for the team-room, the dressing room. Then there’ll be three or four for the clothing committee, and the same number charged with keeping the team room clean.”
O’Gara paints a picture of what life was like in a semi-feudal kingdom with a unique justice system for anyone that falls foul of the law,
“There’s the court system, and maybe a table tennis competition between management and players. Foremost is the Social Committee, which looks after everything from cinema to nights out to best venues for parties. Non-rugby distractions are just as important as the rugby after already having spent over 70 days together in pre-season.”
We can only imagine that the infamous ‘court system’ is why Paul O’Connell famously gave a team talk at the 2011 World Cup with his man done up as a cat.
