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Chapter 1: What are Tommy Bowe and Donncha O'Callaghan's thoughts on the current Women's World Cup?
Well, Donika, welcome along to another dressing room.
Yes, looking forward to it, Tommy. How have you been, Philip? I'm great, thank you.
Yeah, very good. Enjoying the Women's World Cup at the minute. The crowds over there in England have been fantastic. It's brilliant to see. But the big game is this weekend. So the dressing room decided to just go back and look at some of our Rugby World Cup memories. And I think we've kind of done a few highs and lows looking back on it. What do you think?
Have you had an overall thought when it comes back to World Cups?
No, but I look on with a bit of envy at the moment at the girls in the middle of their one because with hindsight, no, you understand. It's a really special time, man, isn't it? And I gave that no appreciation in it. I was just looking to the next week, whereas... Like, I'm really proud that I went to three, but I'd say in all three of them, I didn't really enjoy them like I could have.
Well, we'll chat about it in a minute, but if it's one I probably enjoyed more than the rest and that led to a bit of trouble. But I think that's what stirred the dressing room conversation. Obviously, on Friday, we're going to chat about the Women's World Cup and we'll go into detail on the game. But we wanted to touch here in the dressing room about the World Cup in general.
The highs, the lows, the ceremonies around it and how they're nearly treated differently and how we all have enough by the quarterfinals so we feck off home.
The quarterfinal curse. I wonder if the women will be able to get past that. It would be amazing if they did.
Yeah, it would be great.
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Chapter 2: What highs and lows do the hosts recall from their Rugby World Cup experiences?
But it is true. Like you just... Yeah, you don't appreciate it. There's so much going on. But like, if you look back at it and think about it, the crack that was had, like phenomenal, you know, off the pitch, like because you play every weekend, you're on tour together. So you did what, 2003, did you?
2003 to Australia, 2007 to France and 2011 with you in New Zealand. Okay.
Yeah, I did 2011 and 2015 in England and Wales.
Oh yeah. That was the one that Argentina we lost to, wasn't it? When they kept turning to the stand being full of superstars. Yeah. It was just, stop banging it home that half our players are in the stand.
Well, that, like, I suppose I might as well even start, like, as a low, that is one of my lows. That has to be one of the biggest lows because we obviously were meeting, we'd beaten France in the group stages, topped the pool. Things were flying. But of course, remember, Paulie ripped his hamstring in that game. Sean O'Brien got injured. Pete O'Mahony got injured. Jared Payne got injured.
And then I think it was like 12 minutes into the game, I ruptured my knee ligaments. So then we were really fucked. We had no chance.
We had a chance when we lost all those superstars.
But when the Lionel Messi of our team...
I heard people walked out of the pubs in Ireland when Bo left. Sorry, Tommy, tell us, what actually happened to you? I remember you going off on the... The stretcher.
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Chapter 3: What injury impacted Tommy Bowe's Rugby World Cup journey?
Yeah, I know we've started on a low, but I think it is actually, it's the overriding window of the Men's World Cup, really, is that quarterfinal exit seems to hang over us an awful lot. And Tommy, I think you've nailed the overriding feeling there, because I've had exactly that. I think it's the fact that you actually pre-season together.
I don't think... Like, you never unite like you really do for a World Cup. You come together for Six Nations. But for a World Cup, you get that march of a pre-season. You suffer together, which actually makes...
builds these bonds and then when it kind of falls down you can feel so empty like I the lowest point in my rugby career certainly has to be France 2007 and that feeling again having lost Argentina I remember afterwards there was lads having a few beers and someone offered me a can of coke or whatever it was and they were like there's ice cream there
And I genuinely don't think I'd seen like stuff like that in over kind of like eight, nine months because I was so on it. You know what I mean?
Ice cream and Coca-Cola.
Yeah, yeah. I swear to God, man. You know what I mean? It was like, it felt like going to a kid's birthday party and I found it so weird and jarring. I was there like, how the fuck are we at this? You know what I mean? How's it... It's over, you know. That was some disaster of a World Cup, wasn't it?
0-7.
Didn't I do you a favour? Didn't I do you a favour going the wrong way?
Oh, man. Yeah, exactly. I missed out on that World Cup because you tell me what, anyway, Sullivan dropped me. Short cut, yeah. You tell me to go the wrong way by the hotel. But Jesus, that was such a shocker, wasn't it? Like, Ireland didn't even get out of the pool in that World Cup. What the hell?
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Chapter 4: How did the quarterfinal curse affect their World Cup performances?
Yeah, Liam hates me, yeah. could he hate you that's Bala before that World Cup like he'd written me off it was him who didn't pick me I think he was teaching me how to tie my shoelaces and stuff you know he had a different way of tying his laces you're right he made out that we all tied them wrong
Yeah, and remember I'd turn up to Spala in Poland for these intense training camps and I'd spend like 50 euro just on plain Haribo and sweets. Like full plastic bag of jellies. And Liam Hennessy was like, this is exactly everything against what we're doing here. Then we'd go and we'd do the full week in Spala and we'd always have one night in Warsaw, remember?
Yes, yeah, then I'm out in Warsaw. Keep people going.
I'd order a club sandwich and a pint of milk. in the Hilton in Warsaw. I've never tasted a club sandwich like it in my life.
That's so true. In fact, if you ask anyone that had been to those Spala camps, that club sandwich is death row dinner, isn't it?
Oh my God, it's amazing. Amazing. When you're used to just eating cardboard, chicken, fish and, I don't know, pork for a week salad.
Yeah. And the menu was funky as well. Remember, there was things like strawberry soup. You know what I mean? Or they'd say, it's strawberry soup, but all it was in, it was pasta. You were like, this is a stew, lads, isn't it?
That was it. We'd go to Warsaw, we had a big night out. So we'd be sitting in the airport, hanging. And Liam Hennessey would come over and be, you've ruined. You've just wasted that whole week of training. Whoa, whoa, whoa. Well, I don't think you meant that way. I'm sure we'll see eye to eye now.
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Chapter 5: What memorable moments did they share about the 2003 Rugby World Cup?
No, of course. But you know what I used to like about him? Even from when I was first involved with, say, academies, our national academy at our point, when we came into it, it was nationalised. It wasn't in your province. So you trained against it. And I really liked it because you went up against the other provinces.
But I remember I'd be hopping the ball and laughing and messing in the middle of fitness testing and he'd come over and grab me by the elbow and he'd look me in the eye and he's there like, do you know you're competing here? Do you know like that they're going to decide out of this pool who's going to make it?
And like, he was there, you're here with like Bob Casey, Leo Cullen, Mick O'Driscoll, quality, quality, quality. And there you are walking around with your arse around, you know what I mean? Your pants around your arse or something like this. But I remember once he'd sent me out, he was there, go away, take a lap. We were out in, is that, what's it, Morton Stadium out there in Dublin.
There used to be the big place for doing the testing. Santee, no?
No.
Yeah, not far off it. You know, that kind of place where they do the kind of Irish athletic stuff. I remember I got in trouble because there was a bobsleigh in the corner and I was flaking around in it. I need enough of me. He was there. But he was there. Genuinely, have a chat with yourselves and realise that they're all after the same shirt as you.
Sometimes you need that, don't you, when you're a young fella?
I could have hugged him after it. Yeah, yeah. But I've gone around in a circle. I remember chatting to Liam in that World Cup in 2007 and him just kind of going, we can't really unring the bell, Donners. You're... you're overcooked. Just at that point, at that time, we probably got, and it was, genuinely, I put it down to us as players, we got too hot too early, if you know what I mean.
Like, Tommy, I have photos of us, man. We looked like Spartans.
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Chapter 6: What lessons did the hosts learn from their World Cup experiences?
Give me a rugby ball and I'd start licking it.
I remember myself and Trimby would have been training then, Gav Duffy and Shaggy and Dennis Hickey were in some neck. They were in jeez.
I remember, actually speaking of Liam Hennessey, I remember Liam Hennessey sending him away, right? Because he did, I think he did an incredible kind of power clean and then followed it up with a velocity run that broke all sorts of records around the place. And Liam was there. He's done. Like, put him on ice. But the problem was... Dennis? Yeah.
Chapter 7: How did the atmosphere of the Irish fans impact their Rugby World Cup matches?
But the problem was, that's what happened. We got too hot too early and by the time we got to it... shape of our lives but no good for rugby like and then sorry you know I don't like well I do like bitching and moaning but I don't like looking at excuses but I where we were staying that hotel in the middle of nowhere like I remember it became a thing on the bus has anyone seen an animal
Has anyone seen a bird, a dog? You know what I mean? It became a thing. If you could spot any form of wildlife in any way, like you'd win a prize. None of us saw anything. We were in the middle of this.
Well, in Bordeaux, was it?
Well, we were out, man. We were out in the middle of a kind of, it felt like an industrial estate out the back of it. And the food was so shit, Tommy. Honestly, the food was really bad that we, there was a kind of like, oh, is it like a little chef or a hippopotamus?
Chapter 8: What are the hosts' thoughts on the future of the Rugby World Cup?
One of these shitty restaurants that the best chance of you eating well was to go over there and get like a mixed grill. Like, I swear, I remember I used to come down, right, for dinner, try to eat it. It was so fucking appalling that I would genuinely just get a spoon of Nutella, lob it in my gob. Like, I am, the smell of Nutella makes me nauseous. It brings me back into the room in 2007.
Brings you back to memory. Yeah. You know, that smell, you know, we associate with Christmas and different things. I smell Nutella. Nutella is a smell of failure. There you go. That's what it smells like. That's what you tell the kids now. I can't when they're there. Dad, will you open this? And they're, get that away from me.
I mean, we were very close to having Nutella come sponsor the podcast.
That's the end of it. No better boy. You pay a few quid and here I am with my Nutella sandwiches.
Nothing says winner like Nutella on your toast.
When I'm looking to get out of a rush, I like a nice spoon of Nutella.
oh yes 07 there you go 07 that was one to miss jeez that was okay well let's talk quickly the one that we were both there together New Zealand beating Australia like that was a high that was probably one of our biggest highs from the World Cup is beating Australia in Eden Park yeah in that 2013 yeah
That's the one, Tommy, isn't it? Was it or 2011? 2011. Do you know what? Very few people will probably get it, but that was the only chance we'll ever get to feel what it probably feels like to be an All Black. Do you remember how famous we were around Auckland after winning that game?
And in the park, they loved us, didn't they?
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