Day 3 - Wed 15th Oct 08

Finally landed in Sydney, the excitement and tension were palpable among the team. We had a great reception when we landed and much props to Laurie/Dave and Angela from Australian customs and immigration who corralled us together and sped us through immigration. We had thought we would be there for hours but it took less than an hour for us all to gt through and to get outside where we faced the first media scrum of the tour. Now we are beginning to realise how big rugby league is in Australia. At home in England, Ireland and France where we play Superleague there is a media interest in rugby league but nothing like this. To be honest we hadnt expected it and it caught a lot of us by surprise to find so many reporters from TV, radio and the print media there waiting for us in Sydney. Channel 9 the big TV station over here were there to interview players as we disembarked, in particular they wanted to interview Grixie, Scott Grix, our captain, Andy Kelly, head coach, Wayne Kerr and Gilly (Brendan Guilfoyle) two of the Irish based lads. A number of the press guys made a beeline for Pat "paddy" richards also one of our Australian Irish lads based currently at Wigan but who had grown up playing league in Australia and was well known to all the press here. The lads were keen to emphasise that we are not here on our jollys ( we are nota allowed to drop H bombs or use the holiday word in camp), but we ae here to play hard, train hard and hit every team that comes up against us. We are targetting ourselves to progress in the competition and will not be happy at being tagged as honest losers. We are here to win games and give a number of teams a real shoc in the process. After the interviews we boarded our bus to Narrabeen sports academy in new South Wales, where the Manly Sea Eagles are based just outside Sydney. Here we will be bunked for 5 days beasting (intense training) to get us back up to speed and matchpace. The facilities and food are top class. Jason and heather from Narrabeen have been great and given us the run of the place. Wayne from NSW RL Academy has provided us with great kit to train with and we are taking full advantage of being based here away from the city itself. The first training session was a light stetch the legs one to get us ready for what was to come after the plane joureys. Only 2 hours training, light unch, training again and a short session after tea.

The team meeting to start the camp was serious, funny historical and formative at the ame time. Andy gave us all a lecture on our heritage and who the Celts were and what they did., how they fought an what it wa sliek to be part of a tribe lie that. We are a tribe after that talk last night. Andy Mike and the rest of the management had organised a ceremony to present us with a symbol to bond us together, to identify us and to remind u of what we are here to do. Andy gave Grixie his medal which is green with a wild Irish boar on it which we all wear for the duration out here. He explaind that the boar was an animal that was very strong, a good runner, elusive, intelligent and one which will deend his family to the end. Each of the group captains then had to present their groups with their medals individually in front of all the players. At that time you could feel the strength, the togetherness and the willingness to dow ahtever it will take to progress in this competition. We are a team of Irish men from Ireland, England and Australia united now and ready for battle. Bed time at 8pm as we have training at 0630, for everyone, management included. More anon.

Ni neart go cur le cheile