Exhausted but happy to win

AS WEEKENDS away go, Krasnoyarsk in eastern Siberia would not be the most obvious holiday destination.

As a business trip for a professional rugby player, however, Keith Wood and his team mates declared themselves strangely satisfied at being involved.

"Bizarre,” was Wood’s opening assessment as he reflected on the trip to play last Saturday’s World Cup qualifier with Russia in the industrialised city from the comfort of the Greystones clubhouse, a safe seven time zones away.