Brian’s Blog: Berets, Dubs And Beautiful Taupo

It was one of the good days. We felt, as a team, that we had that performance in us. It does get frustrating at times when you don’t deliver on what you know you’re capable of, but in the week leading up to the game we knew we were in the right place.

It wasn’t a shock and we spoke beforehand of not being surprised if we were leading during the match. We underlined the importance to keep playing right up to the final whistle.

Going out that night to celebrate with a few beers was important because it’s important to enjoy those occasions as a squad.

Eden Park had given us some berets – everyone had to wear them – so I’m expecting a few dodgy photographs to emerge because not everyone has the capacity to pull off the look!

Now that I am older, sadly it takes about 48 hours to recover from matches so I didn’t take part in the golf or the white water rafting.

We did hit a range though in Lake Taupo where there was a NZ$10,000 prize for a hole-in-one – it’s miniscule in size but there is another on the island green that’s about the size of a bucket. It took me two buckets of balls to realise that I should be hitting a sand wedge.

Dublin’s victory completed a great weekend and I was able to catch up on the RTE Player because I couldn’t stay awake after our game.

We’re staying in a beautiful place but there is a little touch of a lottery in terms of the accommodation. Players are either broken into groups of two or three. Those in the latter category get to share massive three bedroom apartments, the lap of luxury in terms of space.

Those sharing in twos – well let’s just say there’s a lot less room. Donncha (O’Callaghan) likened it to sleeping on a box of fish fingers, while Darce (Gordon D’Arcy) said it reminded him of going back to his days in Clongowes. Rory Best, who is on the rooming committee, has been fined.

Related Links –

Brian’s blogs are on www.O2.ie/rugby.

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