With the start of their Rugby World Cup campaign just a week away, Ireland will be making their final preparations for the tournament ahead over the coming days.
The squad left for France in recent days, setting up at their base in the city of Tours. The players will become very familiar with those surroundings over the coming weeks, with the tournament campaign set to last until at least the first week of October. Of course, they will be hoping that it goes on far longer than that.
With France only a short flight away, you can be sure that a huge number of Irish supporters will be making their way to the country to back the team in the games against Romania, Tonga, South Africa, and Scotland.
For those already on site, they were given a glimpse at the players earlier this morning.
Johnny Sexton does Craig Casey dirty at Ireland open training session
Ireland held an open training session in Tours today, with a huge number of spectators showing up to catch a glimpse of the world's no. 1 ranked rugby side. In fact, 12,000 fans would attend the event.
It didn't feature any actual training, with the questionable playing surface at the venue meaning that Andy Farrell and his coaching staff did not want to risk injuries by going through drills on the pitch.
Despite this, the players got quite a welcome.
Johnny Sexton led the team onto the pitch, where he was accompanied by scrum half Craig Casey. The Irish captain played up to the Munster man's diminutive stature, acting as though he was a team mascot.
Why does Craig Casey look like a team mascot in this video? 🤣pic.twitter.com/NCQPoetMet
— Balls.ie (@ballsdotie) September 2, 2023
Standing at 5'3", Casey is certainly one of the smaller players in top level rugby at the moment. However, it has certainly not stopped him from developing into a brilliant player.
His height has been the subject of plenty of jokes among his provincial and international teammates in the past, all of which were taken in good spirits.
Speaking after the event, Sexton was amazed by the welcome the Irish team had received.
It was incredible. Since we arrived in Tours, it has been unbelievable how they’ve set up the hotel, how they’ve looked after us. We’re very happy to be here.
Ireland will be hoping that the city provides fond memories in the years ahead as the site of what was a very successful tournament.
We will find out over the coming weeks if that will be the case.
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