They make them hard in Roscommon… and South Auckland.
Connacht have arrived in Siberia, Russia for their European Challenge Cup opener against Ensiel-STM.
Pat Lam’s men have travelled over 6,000 kilometres, across seven time zones, to reach Krasnoyarsk in eastern Russia ahead of their Saturday fixture. Once he arrived, Lam was pleased he did not have to grab a local taxi.
The province have been charting their travels, since 7pm last night, and fans following #RoadtoRussia have been richly rewarded.
There has been some confusion, on Twitter, over the hashtag as the Kenyan national team [nicknamed ‘The Harambee Stars’] are also using it ahead of their World Cup qualifier against Cape Verde.
"Harambee Stars"am enjoying the tweets..na support cape verde..ati #roadtorussia..lol..we aint there yet..#notyetuhuru
— Nix On (@nicksochanda) November 11, 2015
Temperatures, on landing, were a brisk -12 but the men from the West were determined to show the waiting media that they’ve seen worse. Two of them anyway.
Step forward Jack Carty and Bundee Aki, who both sported their club shorts and never hinted for a moment that they were absolutely freezing.
The mind games have begun.
