James Cronin gets ticket for Ireland’s secret Spanish trip

James Cronin was the lucky recipient of a trip to Spain yesterday after an injury to Munster team-mate Dave Kilcoyne ruled him out of Ireland’s Six Nations warm-weather training camp.

Joe Schmidt’s 36-man squad departed unannounced from Dublin for Valencia yesterday for a five-day camp at the five-star Oliva Nova Beach and Golf Resort ahead of their February 3 championship opener in Paris against France.

Why the Irish management felt the need to keep their plan a secret is anybody’s guess, warm weather training is not a new idea and title rivals England have been visiting Portugal’s Algarve each January for several years.