SHANE MCGRATH: Ireland’s Bordeaux experience will be a long way removed from the 2007 disaster, as they bid to make winning start to the Rugby World Cup against Romania
- Ireland entered the 2007 World Cup as one of the best teams in the world
- However, they had a disastrous tournament after being based in Bordeaux
- They are back in Bordeaux this year, and will be hoping to fare much better
- Latest Rugby World Cup 2023 news, including fixtures, live scores and results
By the end, the only people smiling were the taxi-drivers. The Ireland base in Bordeaux 16 years ago was in a hotel on the outskirts of the city, bordering an industrial estate.
It was a late selection by the tournament organisers, after the beautiful city-centre hotel meant to house the Irish was not completed in time.
And it meant a trek every day for those attending the press duties teams are obliged to hold. Bordeaux is a smart, wealthy, modern city, with an excellent public transport system.
But even that didn’t reach the grim corner of the metropolis where the Irish were holed up, so every morning began with a dutiful trudge to one of the few taxi ranks in the city.
Within a few days, the drivers assembled there saw us coming, and we were being greeted with beaming smiles. Worries about paying for their kids’ braces and the high cost of third-level education were easing with each new trip.
The 2007 Rugby World Cup was a disaster for Eddie O’Sullivan (centre) and his Ireland side
Having based themselves in Bordeaux, Ireland stuttered through their group before losing in the quarter-finals to Argentina
The decade and a half since has seen that Ireland hotel assume the reputation of a haunted mansion from a gothic horror.
In reality, it seemed, on the surface, a serviceable, highly functional place. Its two big problems were the quality of the food, and its location.
The former was an issue that would not arise today, given teams are allowed to bring their own cooks as part of the touring party, but it became an increasingly sore point for the players in 2007.
They resorted to trips to fast-food restaurants to fuel up before training, because they couldn’t stomach what was being served up in the dining room.
The problem with location had no solution. Players would take trips into the centre of the city when the attractions of factory gables and car-parks wore off, but there they were confronted by the many thousands of Irish supporters who filled Bordeaux in that fateful month of September.
This was the last year of the Celtic Tiger. Money was easily got and spent more easily again. A night out wasn’t cheap, but money was no object back then.
We all partied, remember.
But this meant that there was no refuge for the players. There was no question of slipping into a restaurant for a quiet meal, or sitting outside a café and taking in the sights. Everywhere they went, they were spotted – and as performances on the field collapsed, the questions from the punters became more insistent.
It was all a dreadful mess.
Ireland’s story at the 2007 World Cup is one of the great disaster narratives in Irish sport. They went out there one of the best teams in the world, beaten to that year’s Six Nations by France on a points difference of just four.
Ireland were blown away by Argentina in the last eight in 2007, bringing an end to their miserable tournament
That result came after they huffed and puffed their way past Georgia in the group stages
The subsequent collapse has been well documented, with the quality of the players’ physical preparation at its root. They weren’t fit enough, and it told from game one, when they stumbled past Namibia.
For the next game, against Georgia, Eddie O’Sullivan picked 14 of the 15 that started in that shocking opener. This was a risk even before a ball was kicked, because that game against the Georgians was the last opportunity to rotate his resources, before the bigger challenges of France and Argentina.
It meant that up to a third of his squad knew they would see little or no action a week into the tournament. That did nothing for morale, but the real disaster awaited. Ireland scraped past the Georgians 14-10, saved by a late Denis Leamy tackle that prevented a try which would have humiliated the Irish. But it was only humiliation delayed, with emphatic losses to the French and Argentineans in Paris rounding off a wretched campaign.
Ireland kept their base in Bordeaux until the final week, but those trips out to the team hotel every day took on an ever-grimmer aspect. The memory is still vivid of sitting in an internal courtyard with one of the players, as he confided that the atmosphere had turned ‘f*****g toxic’. He spoke in a whisper, afraid that our conversation would carry up to one of the overlooking rooms.
As the pressure mounted on the management, the more defensive they became and the testier the exchanges became with the media. Farce started to intrude, too, like on the day a colleague showed up wearing a T-shirt asking the question, ‘Are you calling me a flanker?’
He must have misheard.
All the while, the fans still poured in, many flying in and out for the Namibia and Georgia games, but plenty staying put, and following the team up to Paris and back for the emphatic loss to France.
The misery was finally ended by Argentina in that famously bad-tempered encounter in the Parc des Princes. The teams hated each other back then, and the goading and mouthing was constant.
Paris brought that World Cup to a conclusion, but it was in Bordeaux that the abject drama really played out. Ireland have played there since, losing a World Cup warm-up match to the French in 2011. A year later, Leinster and Clermont played one of the all-time great European Cup matches, with Joe Schmidt’s defending champions winning a classic semi-final.
Andy Farrell and his Ireland players have based themselves in Tours, 350km north of Bordeaux. On Thursday, they will travel south ahead of their opening World Cup game against Romania.
There will be no return to the scenes of the 2007 mishaps.
No chances have been taken with hotels this time, while the Stade Chaban Delmas, where they played 16 years ago, is now confined to Bordeaux Begles fixtures.
Ireland will be playing at the Stade de Bordeaux (pictured) this weekend against Romania
World Cup games in the city are being played in the Stade de Bordeaux, a ground completed only eight years ago and the home of the city’s soccer team. These changes all serve to put distance between the most scarring experience in Ireland’s World Cup history, and the efforts of today.
But the past still informs. Ireland’s determination not to leave any detail unattended saw management express unhappiness with some of the hotels suggested as locations for when they transfer to Paris, where they play South Africa and Scotland, and where knock-out games will be played.
There was no give on the matter from the Irish side; they would only agree to hotels that fulfilled all of their needs. That determination was hard-earned.
When they arrive down in Bordeaux, they’ll find a city once again awash with Irish supporters. There will be a fair representation of Welsh fans, too, with Wales playing Fiji in the same venue on Sunday night.
That game promises to be a lot closer than Ireland’s run-out against the hapless Romanians. As in 2007, the schedule this year opens with two straightforward challenges, before rounds three and four bring much more rigorous examinations.
Ireland head coach Andy Farrell has ensured his team’s preparations have been meticulous this time around
Ireland enter the tournament as one of the favourites after winning the Six Nations earlier this year and beating New Zealand in 2022
But unlike then, the risk of significant disruption is miniscule.
Preparations have been more thorough. Lessons have been learned.
The visiting Irish should be able to relax in wonderful city, with beautiful buildings, chic restaurants and expensive shops.
And somewhere in the suburbs, the Hotel du Lac will sit, a repository of Irish nightmares that made a handful of taxi drivers wealthy men, for a few weeks at least.
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