The Ireland Rugby World Cup squad continued their warm weather training camp today in Capbreton in southwest France, where David Wallace, Rory Best and Geordan Murphy sat out the session.
The training session yesterday took place in warm and balmy conditions in the Parc des Sport and the team were greeted with even warmer temperatures as it hit a high of 28 degrees Celsius at the coastal resort.
While the visiting tourists may have been enjoying the weather, the Irish team were again put through their paces as the tempo of training was upped by the coaching staff in advance of Thursday’s game against Bayonne.
Yesterdays’ session was purposely lower in intensity to allow the squad, and most importantly the players who played against Scotland, to acclimatise and rehab from last weekend’s exertions.
The team had a full contact session in blazing sunshine as they ran though their patterns for Thursday.
The team to play Bayonne will be announced tomorrow afternoon after training for a game that has reportedly been sold out with a 15,000 crowd expected and is sure to be a stern test for the Ireland selection.
Ireland Coach Eddie O’Sullivan said, ‘The game gives us a chance to get more game time for the squad which is what we need, so I would expect to get as many of the players who did not feature against Scotland on the park at some stage.
'Teams in this part of the world take their rugby very seriously and in front of what is expected to be a full house, we expect to get a tough game.’
David Wallace sat out the session as the management continue to monitor his recovery from his ankle problem and Simon Best also joined him in a pitch side rehab session as he was suffering a minor back spasm. Geordan Murphy did not train due to a dead leg that he received against Scotland.
Commenting on the training camp, Gordon D’Arcy said, ‘It’s great to be able to train in these sorts of conditions as it gives us the chance to get a lot or work done without worrying about rain or the weather affecting what we do.
'It also gives us some idea of what we will be encountering when we get into the tournament. Today’s session was full on and guys are very keen to be involved in the game on Thursday. For a lot of us it may be our first hit out of the season, so the intensity was really high.’
On his World Cup selection, D’Arcy said, ‘After missing out on the last tournament, it was great to the nod for this one. A World Cup in any sport is very special and while we all want to enjoy it, we will enjoy it even more if we perform to the best of our ability.’
