Kilcoyne raves about ‘best-ever’ Ireland camp

SOLID ENVIRONMENT: Dave Kilcoyne signs autographs with members of Drop Quartier Rugby. Pic: ©INPHO/Dan Sheridan

For the clockwatchers amongst us, those who can’t wait for 5pm on a Friday and dread the advance of Monday morning, the Ireland’s squad’s hunger to get back to work rather than stay off the clock earlier this week will be an alien concept.

Yet the way Dave Kilcoyne describes it, players were itching to get back to camp here in Tours rather than continue the three-day break that followed their victory in last Saturday’s titanic World Cup pool collision with defending champions South Africa.

That desire to roll up the sleeves and begin preparations for Ireland’s final Pool B game against Scotland in seven days so soon after such an exhausting contest with the Springboks is all down to the boss, Kilcoyne explained.

The 34-year-old Munster prop, at his second World Cup and playing under his third head coach, is not the first senior Ireland player to praise Andy Farrell for his transformative effect on a squad he inherited in the aftermath of yet another quarter-final exit four years ago. Yet every time you hear it those words further embellish the rugby league legend’s reputation as a players’ coach, man manager par excellence.

"I'm loving it over here,” Kilcoyne said yesterday. “You read people writing about the incredible environment Faz has created for the players and I don't say it for the sake of saying it, but I think his emotional intelligence is through the roof.

"You look at that South Africa game, such a big occasion physically and mentally fatiguing and to have the foresight to give the lads two days’ break, he probably knew how mentally and physically fatiguing that game was going to be, for the whole country probably.

“Lads went away and spent a bit of down time and I could even see it yesterday, lads were itching to get back in, bouncing, and it's all eyes on Scotland now.” Kilcoyne and several of his squad mates cut short their Parisian break to return to Tours and immerse themselves back in the team environment at Ireland’s five-star hotel in the Loire Valley city.

“I stayed in Paris for two nights and then we came back down to Tours. A good few of us stayed up there, we rented an AirBnB, about eight or nine of us. Just went out for food, one or two local bars, just eight or nine friends from the squad.

“It’s a very tightknit squad, we had a couple of meals together but even by the Tuesday, we were going to stay down because we had the days off but lads just wanted to get back down and so we came back, myself and Pete got the later train on the Tuesday back to Tours.

“It’s such a great environment down here. We have everything we need in the hotel and full credit to the backroom staff, the set up they have here, our training environment’s unreal, but back there (at the hotel) the work Vinny Hammond has put into our team room, the Ryder Cup is on at the moment, we have TrackMans (golf simulators), every kind of device you could want. So I think lads were just happy to chill out there.

“When there’s great camaraderie in the squad you love being around it.” Kilcoyne was asked if he had experienced team-mates craving freedom from Ireland camps rather than desperation to return there but decline to throw anyone under the team bus.

“I’m not going to be saying about other coaching environments but this is definitely the best Ireland environment I’ve ever been involved in since I’ve been playing, 100 per cent.” 

Ireland, their number one status in the World Rugby rankings confirmed with their victory over the number two-ranked South Africans, have fully reset since that famous night at Stade de France. Now they gearing up for their return to Saint-Denis next Saturday night and a meeting with their Six Nations rivals the Scots, the final standings in Pool B still very much up for grabs despite the mountain they climbed against the Springboks.

"That game is parked, we've a couple of massive learnings from it and we definitely won't be falling in love with ourselves. Paulie (O’Connell) had a few tips for us this morning in areas we were deficient in and we were out there this morning making sure we had them right for Scotland.

“In a competition like this you’ve got to keep learning with every game and you’ve got to keep getting better. Next week poses a massive challenge to us again so we’ve got to prepare as best we can for that.”