Day 15 - Mon 27th Oct 08 GAME DAY

I woke up naturally approx 9:45 (not waken by alarm), on game day this is advised so your body activates you to let you know you have had sufficient sleep. As I do on every game day or training day I will take a shower with hot and cold intervals for around 5 minutes to make me feel ultra fresh although the warm shower stint usually last longer than the cold one. I normally get up early most days (don´t normally have a choice with a 2 year old at home) so for my roomy Gilly to be up before me is very unusual ha ha.

Nearly missed breakfast due to having a lie in but they kindly made me my pre match breakfast of beans on toast which gives me a good source of carbs. I try not to think too much about the game ahead it´s easy to burn out mentally if you do this, but with the big occasion it´s hard not to. I give my partner Anna a call and have a chat I also speak to my little girl Georgia which makes me feel a million times more homesick when I come off the phone.

In the press we have be written off which is a bit insulting as we have quality players throughout our squad so this adds extra motivation to the game. We are ranked 33 to 1 with the bookies to qualify in a group with only 3 teams in it. Everyone expects us to get a mauling tonight but they underestimate the bravery and willingness of the Irish team and everyone to a man is prepared to die on the pitch for a win.

The mood in the camp is pretty relaxed but confident for tonights game, I go for a stroll to the shopping centre (not much else to do in Parramatta), the weather is much better today the thermometer is certainly rising. Pretty humid to which I think will be a massive advantage for us, those big Tongans will not be as fit as us. Around about 12 and 3 I have a light bite to eat I dont like to eat too much on game day, I don´t want to be bloated and heavy though I do sip water and Hypertonic fuel (a high carb drink from K2 Nutrition) throughout the day.

We have a meeting at 3:30, the coaches hand out the caps to the debut players Pat Richards, Mick McIlorum and Ben Harrison then we have a little prep talk but not much needs to be said now, we have be preparing for this game for sometime, we are just ready to play now. We were ready last week!, so we board our coach and prepare for battle........

Ni Neart go cur le cheile