WHEN the members of the Ireland international rugby squad assembled in Dublin last Thursday, they were unaware of what lay in store for them on Saturday and Sunday.

They trained in Dublin on Friday. Then came a 4.00 am call on Saturday and transportation to the Glen of Imaal in County Wicklow. Then it was the Irish army routine as they trained with the Army and were subjected to the same very tough programme as the soldiers, including wading through water and camping out overnight on Saturday.

"It was part of an intensive programme of fitness, mental and physical, that we see as a necessity to get the players to the right level of fitness, psychologically no less than physically," said Ireland manager Pat Whelan. "They went through the whole army routine and were understandably exhausted when it was over. But it was a great success. Some found it harder than others. We will be training with the Army again."

The squad will get together again on July 6th "and a fitness programme has been mapped out for the whole season," said Whelan.

"The players have been told what is expected of them. In fact we are currently formulating plans right up to the next World Cup in 1999. It is imperative that we reach the proper level of fitness and that, in the new professional era, requires a much more intensive fitness routine than in the past. We will be competing against full time professional players. I think that the Australians' superior fitness was one element that was evident in the match between Australia and Wales last weekend."

Most of the squad were present to sample life army style. The only absentees were Malcolm O'Kelly, Niall Woods and Simon Mason, who had examinations, and Simon Geoghegan who was not required to go through the demanding schedule as he is recovering from an operation on his two big toes. Eddie Halvey was also missing. There was apparently some mix up in relation to notifying him of the sessions.

"We deliberately did not make "any announcement about what we intended to do, nor did we tell the squad before they assembled what was in store." Perhaps in the circumstances that was just as well.

John Maher writes:

The squad was split into five man teams and spent the day marching across country - under Army supervision - each team carrying a heavy rucksack and a rugby ball.

One of the rules was that the ball could never be put down. If it was dropped "you'd have to do 20 or 30 push ups, you might have to do a few kilometres of a run, or a sprint, and sometimes they'd penalise us with sleep deprivation," said team captain, Niall Hogan.

On Saturday night the team members slept in tents which they had themselves erected. Most got to sleep after 2.00 a.m. on Saturday but were roused again at 6.00 a.m. on Sunday for further crosscountry marching.

An Army spokesman said the exercise was staged at no cost to the taxpayer. The soldiers volunteered for the exercise and were not paid for their time.

He added that the soldiers were drawn from a number of units and were not exclusively from the elite Rangers battalion, as had been suggested.