Pau fiasco was a turning point, says Fiona Coghlan

A former Irish captain, who demanded high standards and wasn’t content for things to be run in a haphazard fashion — Roy Keane wasn’t the only panellist to fit this description at the Bord Gáis Energy ‘Winning in Business’ forum.

Where Saipan is the shorthand for organisational failure with the men’s soccer team, for the Ireland women’s rugby team, Pau, the venue for the 2012 Six Nations clash away to France serves as year zero.

Having flown to Paris, Ireland got caught in Friday evening rush-hour traffic and so had to take an overnight train to Bordeaux, with sleep not all that plentiful ahead of an early kick-off.