A very rare thing happened at Roy Keane’s press conference in Versailles on Friday afternoon – ennui set in.
Nothing to do with the ever-engaging Cork man at the top table, it must be said, but rather the lingering presence of Miguel the translator, who through no fault of his own, turned a usual 20-minute goal-fest into a scoreless stalemate.
Naturally enough, the media of Ireland’s opponents had shown up to the training camp at Stade Montbauron and they wanted to hear what Monsieur Keane had to say. Every. Single. Word. And then some.
Miguel’s version of Keane’s answers appeared to run a lot longer than the time it took the Ireland assistant to say it, with Roy’s accompanying facial expressions the only entertaining aspect of the otherwise painful Q & A.
“Did I say that much?” said Keane after one particular rambling monologue.
The corresponding over-exaggerated laughter was a not-so-subtle hint to introduce a more succinct synopsis of Keane’s words, yet evidently and ironically, it was lost in translation.
The French and English press were fishing for a tale of the fighting Irish coming to spoil the hosts’ party and gain revenge for the sins of Thierry Henry.
But Keane flicked the questions away with the ease of a test batsman playing out the final overs of an evening session.
“We don't have that mentality, revenge doesn't come into it,” he said.
Roy Keane is no fisherman’s friend and was more interested in painting a picture; outlining the tough task at hand for Ireland as they come up against one of the tournament favourites with a place in the quarter-finals of Euro 2016 up for grabs.
Keane spoke about the quality within this France squad, the additional recovery time afforded to Sunday’s opponents due to the schedule and the major advantage of playing on home soil in front of a majority, fervent French crowd, with the Ireland supporters only getting a fraction of the 59,000 tickets available.
“4,500 [tickets] seems a little bit unfair but you have to roll your sleeves up," said Keane.
And while Roy spoke of the very difficult challenge awaiting the Irish in Lyon, he certainly wasn’t saying that it was an impossible task for this Ireland side.
The concern about recovery stems from the fact that the team only got back to the hotel in Versailles at five in the morning after the Italy clash in Lille due to some players waiting around for random drug testing.
And Keane is concerned that it will prove difficult to replenish the required energy levels after such a short turnaround – that emphasis of energy apparent once again from the Ireland assistant.
The performance against Italy, it would seem, pleased Keane almost as much as the result, thanks to the players’ decision making and clever use of the ball.
Of course, there was special praise for Robbie Brady – not singled out by Keane, but just a simple response to a question about the Dubliner’s performance.
"Robbie is a really good player,” said Keane. “A lot of quality, we saw that in the goal. He showed a lot of courage and bravery just to make that run.
“He has got the energy and the quality; the quality to look after the ball and the energy with five or 10 minutes to still get himself in the box.
“We talk about his delivery constantly, but there's a lot more to Robbie Brady than set-plays and we saw that with the goal the other night.
“It was a huge moment for him and you could see afterwards what it meant to the guy. It was fantastic, really great to see."
Keane admitted that it would be tough to drop anyone from the side that performed so well against Italy, although he was quick to point out that the approach for Sunday would not necessarily follow those same front-foot tactics that were used in Lille.
“There are several ways to win a game,” said Keane, before adding that perhaps this group of players are most suited to that “up and at them” style, which also helped build momentum and establish a foothold in the game.
Another pleasing facet of the play against Italy was how quickly the team won the ball back when they lost possession. Again, Keane noted that the full-on approach helped in those matters as possession was generally being lost further up the pitch, allowing the players more time to win the ball back.
The Ireland team left their base in Versailles last night, rolling out of town amidst an impressive cavalcade of police vehicles, heading down to Lyon a day earlier than expected.
The extravagant Trianon Palace has been home to the Ireland team for the last two and a half weeks.
But judging by Keane’s demeanour, this particular grand depart was more a case of “so long” rather than “goodbye” to their Euro 2016 base.
"We felt we weren’t ready to go home (before the Italy match),” said Keane.
“We really had a strong feeling in the dressing room that we wanted to stay a bit longer. Hopefully that will be the case again after the next day."
And with that, Keane upped and left. But not before Miguel had finished translating.
Watch live coverage of France v Republic of Ireland this Sunday on RTÉ2 and the RTÉ Player from 1.00pm. Irish language commentary will be available to RTÉ2 viewers on Saorview and Sky as well as on RTÉ Player. Listen to live coverage on RTÉ Radio 1 on Sunday Sport.
