Irish players in Japan should keep their phones charged, just ask John Hayes

The Bull was on the farm in Cappamore when the call came.

Euan Murray had just done an ankle during the win against Southern Kings in Port Elizabeth and Ian McGeechan needed another tighthead prop. So out John Hayes flew, to Durban, just days before the first Test.

“McGeechan asked me was I fit,” Hayes recalled. “I said ‘I don’t know about that but I’m fresh anyway’. I’d done nothing in about three weeks. I don’t know whether I was supposed to have kept training or not.