RUGBY:The Ireland backrow tells GERRY THORNLEYthat life in the training camp "has been very intense"

AS THE globe’s leading rugby nations work toward a seventh World Cup, there is still no exact science or conformity to the countdown. Even those from the same neck of the woods, ie, the Six Nations, are doing things very differently.

At contrasting ends of the spectrum are Ireland and France. Whereas England have opted for three warm-up games, France’s double-header with Ireland constitutes their only preparatory matches.

Declan Kidney and co have added another outing against Connacht to supplement four August Tests.

It’s a similar tale in terms of squad selection. A couple of days ago, Martin Johnson culled his squad from 45 to 40 in a rugby-like version of The Apprentice, which, one imagines, Kidney (who will only trim his 46-man squad to the mandatory 30 the day before the August 23rd deadline) would be loath to emulate.

Again, by stark contrast, the French, as is their custom, named a more streamlined, 33-man squad prior to entering World Cup camp on June 28th.

Were the French to reach the final on October 23rd they will have been virtually four months in camp together. Admittedly, Marc Lièvremont and his coaching staff did give their squad a five-day break in the middle of July and a four-day respite this weekend, and have moved from their initial base in Marcoussis on the outskirts of Paris, to Chabon-sur-Lignon in the Haute-Loire near St Etienne, and then last week to Falgos, near Perpignan, in the Pyrenees.

They have also sought to build the spirit of their group with something different each week, such as their well publicised “operation commando”, featuring water rafting, overnight camping and a combination of cycling and road running.

Reports of suffering are commonplace, but the same is true in the Irish camp over the last five or six weeks.

“It has been very intense,” says Denis Leamy, who admits the heavy weight-lifting compelled him to put his feet up and relax in any spare time. “I suppose you enjoy it, but in a sick way.

“We have had particularly tough fitness sessions and had a few guys spewing up their dinners and things like that. The first week I had Declan (Kidney) pushing a sled for me with weights on it, and while I was falling off the back of it for the last 100 metres, Deccie got involved and pushed it the last 100 metres for me. So I got a bit of a ribbing off that,” he reveals sheepishly.

Although he finished last season less than happy at being on the bench for Munster in the Magners League final, a holiday in Croatia refreshed him. But all the while lurked the certainty of what was to follow.

“Anyone who worked with Phil Morrow before knew he was a bit of a psycho in terms of his fitness and weights drills and we knew we were in for something that was going to be very tough. We knew that, being World Cup year, it would be that much harder.”

The passing years haven’t necessarily made pre-seasons any easier or tougher.

“When you’re 19 and have youth on your side you find it difficult, but now at this stage it gets difficult as well, going through the ringer.”

However, he’s noted a distinct change amid the personal training schedules in this pre-season. Leamy counts himself among those seeking to lose weight by easing off on the weights and getting up earlier for some bike work in recognition of the changed game.

“Definitely I think it’s quickened up a lot, certainly in the last while. You can notice there’s a change in a lot of lads’ body type. They have the luxury in the Southern Hemisphere, that the grounds are a lot harder for most of the year and they can do that.

“Up here it gets a little bit more wetter and boys are probably a little more heavier because of the way the game is played. But I think the way we’re going now for the World Cup, I think you’ll see guys hopefully ready for top-of- the-ground sort of rugby.”

Leamy concurs with the view that Ireland weren’t sufficiently match-hardened four years ago, and welcomes the greater variety of the squad’s bases in New Zealand. But he maintains: “I think you’re better off moving on from it, really, because there was such a big build-up to it, and we probably didn’t help things in the way we went out in the open and stated that we wanted to get to the semi-finals and final, and that didn’t happen, and it was probably used as a bit of a stick to beat us with.

“I think it’s important this time that we go through the process. We start with our warm-up matches and tick all the boxes there, and we look at the US first up and make sure we get the points there, and move on from there.

“It’s all about getting out of our pool, really, and we can start to dream from there.”