Apart from Joe Schmidt, this Ireland team’s togetherness has got them through some big games recently.
Down to 14 men for an hour against the Springboks in Cape Town? No bother.
Faced with a world champion All Blacks team that had won 18 Tests in a row? Okay so.
Ireland are not the finished article yet. They need to sew together good results rather than thrill us one moment and have us cursing the next. They are not far off though. There is genuine hope in the air.
At Ireland’s team announcement for Saturday’s game with Canada, Cian Healy spoke of the strong bonds that have already formed within a squad of potential world-beaters. Healy told us:
“It is a great thing to be a part of. The thing that’s bringing us along is that there’s a lot of experience and a lot of energy from the younger lads that have less caps. There’s a great buzz around camp. Things that are new to people and the things that people have been doing for years it’s all bonding pretty well in training.
“And then about the hotel there’s no groups or anything like that. Everyone is gelling as one, going off for coffee in different groups and enjoying each other’s company as well as working well as a team.”
SportsJOE caught up with Connacht scrum-half Kieran Marmion, who will renew his Ireland U20 partnership with Paddy Jackson this weekend. He said:
“You’d be having lunch with Munster, Leinster and Ulster lads. In your downtime, you might be rooming with someone in your province so you can go relax back there.
“It’s not clicky at all. Everyone’s pretty friendly.”
As if to prove a point, we took up a seat in the Carton House lobby after the interviews were done and there was Ireland captain Peter O’Mahony posing for pictures with a couple’s newborn baby.
Behind the Munster flanker sat coffee-sampling Craig Gilroy, Iain Henderson and Tiernan O’Halloran, while Rob Kearney stopped by for a chat.
There’s a lot to like about this Ireland squad and it is not just the history-making results.
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