Rightly, the 2007 World Cup is viewed as a disaster from an Irish point of view. Elimination came in the group stage after poor performances against Georgia and Namibia and then successive losses to France and Argentina.
Hype surrounding the Irish side was elevated going into the tournament. Just a year previous Munster had won their first Heineken Cup and Leinster were on the rise. That year's Six Nations was only lost on points difference to France. It was also a Six Nations which included the demolition of England at Croke Park.
Autumn 2007 was a low point for the international side though.
Looking back now, Shane Horgan doesn't have too many fond memories - one does stick out though.
On the day of their penultimate group game against France, two fans made Horgan smile with their desire to be at the Stade de France to see Ireland play.
There weren't too many things going right, there weren't too many things to make me smile at the 2007 World Cup - but this certainly did.
I remember we were staying - for some reason - a long way outside of Paris in a business district where there wasn't a whole lot going on.
I think it was the French game, the second last game in the group, where we still had a chance of going through. A huge game with a lot of pressure. It hadn't been going well so we were all feeling it.
The bus pulls up and there were a two fans there to meet us at the hotel. We thought, 'fair play to them for coming over', it's a long way and we've got a couple of riders on bikes to get us there [the Stadium] on time.
We were throwing the bags into the boot at the side of the bus and we weren't thinking anything of it, security everywhere, it's the World Cup. So we get on the bus and headed away across town, got to the Stade de France.
We go underneath the stadium and we go to get the bags out and just as the boot opens up, two Irish fans - dressed fully as leprechauns - burst out and run off into the stadium never to be seen again.
I was thinking, jeez, those guys are committed fans. They wanted to see us in the hotel but they made sure they were getting to the match in plenty of time too.
Those two guys were a pair of lunatics.
Cover image credit: Matt Browne / SPORTSFILE
Shane Horgan was speaking at an event for Heineken Rugby Club find out more at www.HeinekenRugbyClub.com.
