The small details that land the biggest rewards

I had an enjoyable chat last week with Ger Carmody, the IRFU’s head of operations.

If you wonder what someone like that does, consider the thoughts of another member of Irish rugby’s backroom team, who told me that if he had to move to another country he’d simply hand Carmody his keys and ask for a figure he wanted to be paid.

In the course of that chat Carmody gave an insight into the level of pre-planning and preparation that’s needed both generally and specifically, something you might have seen in Saturday’s newspapers. But for reasons of space not every nugget got fished out of the river. In the course of a chat about hotels, for instance, Carmody detailed what he looks for in a hotel.