As long as he's been Ireland's baggage manager, Paddy 'Rala' O'Reilly has prided himself on always having obtained whatever it is his players wanted, whenever they wanted it and wherever they were. In Krasnoyarsk, though, he failed for the first time, and of all the things he couldn't get, it was ice cubes. Yep, no ice cubes in Siberia shock.
Cutting no ice
"I spent two days trying to get ice cubes and couldn't get any, in Siberia of all places. Eventually they turned up just as the players were arriving at the ground. It's ironic, and I can laugh now, but it wasn't funny at the time."
Murphy excels
Performance of the week has to go to Martin Murphy, the IRFU's operations manager. Already having gone solo to Krasnoyarsk on a reconnaissance mission last July, he left Dublin ahead of the official party on Tuesday evening, eventually arriving in Krasnoyarsk on Thursday morning at 7 a.m. local time.
This included a two-hour trek between airports in Moscow. Well, theoretically it's two hours by car. "But you have to allows six hours, because it took me one and a half hours to get out of the first airport and then you could hit traffic. I warned the lads, 'always expect delays, don't try to rush things. Everything gets done in its own good time over here'."
A pleasant surprise was the team's base in the Hotel October. "They had done a phenomenal job since I was last here in July and were still finishing it the morning I arrived. The rooms were excellent and so was the food."
The hospitality couldn't be faulted, and looking a tad drawn, to say the least, by the end of Saturday's match he admitted he hadn't slept in three nights, culminating in an official soiree involving the Russian Federation and the IRFU delegation on the Friday evening in the local civic centre.
"There were eight speeches and after every one there was a toast of vodka." The touchjudges were in attendances, but didn't partake (while referee Joel Jutge didn't arrive until midnight that night). Lucky them.
Russian lockout
Eighty-two people were amongst the official party on the 142-seat Boeing 747 which set off to Krasnoyarsk last Thursday. Given 26 of those were players, another 12 were management and there were also a dozen IRFU staff or committee men, even allowing for a few expats and fellow celtic stragglers, Ireland's support base couldn't have numbered much more than 50 in the 12-15,000 attendance at the Centralny Stadium.
One group were five Leinster supporters who can now claim they've followed Ireland to Buenos Aires and Siberia. Alas, like several other Irish supporters and Russians they were locked out of the main stand just before kick-off having stepped outside for refreshments.
Persistent banging of doors and pleas had little effect on the stern-faced officials until eventually they forced their way through alternate gates. Having lost their seats they ended up seated amongst a clutch of home fans. "After a few glares we decided it best to stop cheering on Ireland and even joined in with the locals." "Rus-ki-a, Rus-ki-a." Better safe than sorry.
Hickie lets it Rip
Rip Van Winkle of the trip to Siberia was the laid back Denis Hickie (above right). "He forgot his alarm clock and his watch, and his mobile didn't work," explains Anthony Foley. "So he just slept the whole time, and was late for everything."
What they said
"The pitch was very small, we couldn't find much space out there, and the change of balls last night (Friday) was an unpleasant surprise to everybody and had an effect on the lineout throwing. Keith was throwing with a ball he hadn't thrown in over a year. It (the summit ball) is a much smaller and a lighter ball and doesn't fly the same," said Eddie O'Sullivan.
"We played very badly in the first-half. Our line-out was a shambles and I take 95½ per cent of the blame. I was throwing the ball beautifully but it was going about five yards too long with frightening regularity and in the second-half I just took a lot off the ball." Keith Wood doing a mea culpa.
"The loss against the Irish will not make a difference for our positives against Georgia. The Irish didn't run over us. At some stages they suffered a bit." The proud Russian coach James Stoffberg.
"Very tough. We're happy we got the result. We're dead happy they didn't score any tries. That was one of our goals going into the game. It's very hard playing a game when you're overwhelming favourites to win but yet if you don't win there's a helluva lot of repercussions. So there is that fear factor as well. Granted it wasn't the best display you'll ever see from an Irish side, but when you're qualifying for a World Cup you're just after the two points." Anthony Foley.
"I'm relieved to get out of here. It's a long way from home. It's a decent result in the circumstances. We were dragging ourselves around the pitch after 10 minutes and I have to say I was a little bit worried. If they had got into the game at that stage it could have been a very different game." O'Sullivan again. "No one's jumping up and down that we won but by the same token we're not totally down. It's our second game of a little pod of three, and we've three more in the autumn and then a lorryload after the new year so we won't lose the run of ourselves one way or the other." Wood again.
Simple really
While the winners of this three-team qualifying section automatically progress to Pool A in the World Cup finals, which contains the hosts cum defending champions Australia, Argentina, an African qualifier (most likely Zimbabwe) and another European qualifier, the runners-up will advance to Pool C, featuring South Africa, England, Samoa and Uruguay. The third-placed country, meanwhile, has a secondary route to the finals via the complicated repechage system.
The other European qualifying group began on Saturday as well when Spain hosted Italy in Valladolid, while next Saturday Italy meet Romania in Parma and the following Saturday Romania entertain Spain. The winners of this group will progress to Pool D in the finals, featuring New Zealand, Wales, Canada and a repechange qualifier, most likely Tonga. The runners-up will play in Pool A, alongside Australia, Argentina and hopefully Ireland.
Presuming Ireland beat Georgia at home next Saturday in effect therefore, the losers of the Georgia-Russia game in Tbilisi next month will have a second chance, with the likelihood being a two-legged encounter against Spain or Romania and then in turn a possible meeting with the USA Eagles, surprisingly edged out by both Canada and Uruguay in the Americas' qualifying round robin. The winners of that will then qualify for the finals in Pool B, alongside France, Scotland, Fiji and and Asian qualifier.
Straight forward really.
Signing of Stoffberg
How a South African comes to be the Russian coach is a story in itself, and even allowing for the rand's poor standing it's clear that the reasoning behind it is not entirely fiscal.
James Stoffberg is an embittered man when it comes to discussing South African rugby. The way Stoffberg explains it he was due to be coaching the Bulls in the Super 12 in January of last year when "I received a phone call from the Russian Federation asking me if I was interested in becoming their coach. They wanted a professional coach to try to help them qualify for the World Cup finals for the first time. I told them I was not interested, but to make the story short within three weeks I had signed.
"In South Africa there is no structure for coaches. I believe I am one of the more experienced coaches in South Africa. But you can't have nine Springbok coaches in 11 years. So the structure in South Africa made it easier for me to come."
