Tuesday, October 12th

With the game on Friday, the team was selected today. A possible three matches in a week has a huge bearing on selection and the squad is rotated with only six players from Sunday in the starting 15, including myself.

Maintaining the intensity in training was difficult and it was much more low key. A number of fun games were brought into it to lift spirits after the Australian game.

Trev, my room-mate, was up at 6.30 a.m. to face sentencing in London, where he was severely punished with a two-match ban. After viewing the footage, the ruling was that they could not make out who started the brawl, never mind the fact that Trevor was held down by two of the Australians while Kefu gave him a beating. Trevor was a victim of the new soccer style outlook on the game.

The afternoon entailed a bus trip all the way to Blanchardstown fitness centre for an hour of power with `our kid Craigie' (fitness adviser Craig White). Trevor returned that evening. I thought he might have gone AWOL but he just went to the cinema with a couple of the lads. I didn't see him until late. He talked us through it. He sounded upset, but what could he do but just get on with it?

Wednesday, October 13th

Line-outs and video analysis in Finnstown. With the two games being so close, to keep the legs fresh we've been working on technical aspects on and off the pitch on how to break the Romanians down and attack their weaknesses. And it was obvious from the videos that it would require dominance from the front five.

We moved to the Berkeley Court again for a change of scenery. After a sharp run through in Donnybrook under lights the evening was our own. Mike Mullins was to win his first full cap and it's worth recording that finally we have a new cap who can sing. He doesn't have his guitar with him, but he sang the Midnight Special, a Van Morrison number, and sang it very well.

Niggly injuries have plagued the team this week. Eric Miller tweaked a hamstring, Corks' back has gone into spasm and it looks fairly severe as he is walking crooked and wincing with every step.

That evening, more injuries. Bishy damaged his hamstring and now also looks doubtful for the game.

Thursday, 14th October

A light run-out in Wanderers, re-affirming our gameplan so that it's second nature tomorrow evening. Obviously we are very confident of victory and progressing to the next stage. Our desire to succeed is unquestionable and our confidence - although it took a bruising against Australia - is soaring and we aim to have these Romanians on the plane home by half-time. This will only come by honest hard work and aggression.

Corks' World Cup has come to an end, a rough blow for him and the squad. Alan Quinlan, who had been swinging out of trees on some camp in Galway with Munster, steps in and will sit on the bench. I'm sure that Limerick will drink to that. Bishy was pulled out of the match for fear of tearing the hammer (hamstring). "Bru'al," as I'm sure he would say. The Truck (Matt Mostyn) is in.

With all these late changes, it can be easy to lose focus but there is a hell of a lot at stake, not only our World Cup, but our jobs too. 'Nuff said.

Friday, October 15th

An evening kick-off, so a lot of hanging around the team hotel watching the time tick by. The team went for a walk to Herbert Park in the morning where we decided to do some line-outs. However one of the caretakers told us to keep off the grass and moved us on to one of the playing fields. I'm sure he took great pleasure in telling the Irish team to go off and do line-outs somewhere else.

The session was precise, even though Quinny hadn't worked with us before. Claw strained his back. On the way back we found Rala (bagman Paddy O'Reilly) and Dave the driver arguing with some wheel-clampers who were in the process of clamping the team bus for parking outside the Berkeley Court in the taxi zone. That would have been a bit of a laugh, but thankfully they were stopped.

For the rest of the day we watched some rugby on the box. Denise was inundated with injuries. The second floor was more like a hospital ward. Claw pulled out and Wally was called up for duty.

It was great to see another big crowd at Lansdowne Road, which I hadn't expected. Everyone in the team knew at this stage what was required of them to break Romania down and the aggression in defence that we must have to stop Romania playing their game. Judging by the growls from next door, it was obvious Romania were going to throw everything they had at us but it was about absorbing their pressure in the early stages and being clinical in our own attack, which by and large we were.

Pulling away quickly on the scoreboard allowed changes to be made early in the second-half, giving Quinny, Angus and Gordon their first caps. Eric Elwood came off with a nick on his head and Briano came on at out-half for the last 10 minutes so our gameplan veered into unchartered territory. Or maybe it was due to some spiritual intervention (in this case God himself) as George Hook had asked for. Nice drop goal Brian, bit of Guscott in him there as well.

Saturday, October 16th

Bar a 9.00 a.m. pool session, Saturday was `Our Own'.

Sunday, October 17th

Fresh from a day off, and with passport in hand, we headed off to Dublin Airport to fly to Lille. Blue skies met us on our arrival. We've been booked into a Novotel at Lille Airport - no expenses spared by the IRB. In the hotel rooms we thankfully do not have to contend with the customary hole-in-the-ground French toilets. A walk around the area, an industrial estate, to stretch the legs; physio and video analysis.

Monday, October 18th

Morning video session. Watched Argentina's qualifying matches. First training session at Lille University and there was an edginess in training. Warren (Gatland) was looking for an accuracy and sharpness, which eventually was attained. The club had a public pool so we made use of it afterwards, then back to our drab hotel.

Entertainments are few and far between. French TV interested nobody so cards had a few unlikely guests and a couple of the new boys are taken to the cleaners.

The card school is swelling to about nine. Even Humphs shows up for a hand! It must be the boredom threshold after 26 days together living in hotels. There was nothing to do nearby. The TV set is usually the most popular way of killing time. I have a ghetto blaster and book of about 60 CDs with me. Mostly listening to old stuff lately, a bit of Van Morrison or The Beatles, and then pump up the volume before games, maybe with Leftfield.

I play a good bit of chess, playstation, and I read a few books - I've read Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas and I'm currently reading The Joy by Paul Howard. Most of us had a steak tonight, which came almost pure raw. I'm pretty easy-going about my food, but not this. A lot of ham and brie rolls are being ordered to the rooms.

Tuesday, October 19th

In the morning we take the bus to Lens Racing Club where we are due to play tomorrow and walk the pitch. It's a fantastic all-seater stadium. The stands are right on top of the pitch, similar to a lot of Premier English soccer pitches. We aren't allowed train on the pitch, so we march back onto the bus and head for another pitch close by. The bus drives 100 yards and stops - we hadn't left the ground. There's a fine there somewhere. We all climb off again, the grounds-man finally shows up and takes us through a subterranean passage, eerily like a scene from Midnight Express. The amount of security gates and barbed wire fencing we go through makes me feel like a prisoner of war being led to a gas chamber. But, after all that, it's just another soccer pitch.

(In an interview with Gerry Thornley)