The Ireland team got a welcome visit from a few well-known faces at their sunny Portugal training camp, ahead of their World Cup warm-up clash with England on August 19.
The Irish team, who are currently out in Quinta do Lago, were greeted by none other than two of Ireland's greatest ever sportspeople in Roy Keane and Padraig Harrington, and one of the country's favourite pop stars, Niall Horan.
"It's great to be here, it's some setup first of all," said Horan.
I found out the lads are going to be around this week, and we're playing a festival about an hour and a half away tonights, and I know Robbie Henshaw quite well, fellow Westmeath man.
I got in touch and asked if I could come down and watch the training, the team have been great, it's been a very nice morning.
A Few Celebrities Turned Up At Ireland's World Cup Training Camp
👋 Great to have a couple of familiar faces at today’s session! #TeamOfUs pic.twitter.com/nO6SStCigY
— Irish Rugby (@IrishRugby) August 9, 2023
@irishrugby Great to have @Niall Horan at today’s session! ☘️ #TeamOfUs ♬ original sound - Irish Rugby
💬 "Watching high level sport like this is unbelievable."
A pleasure to host @NiallOfficial at this morning's squad session in Portugal 👇#TeamOfUs pic.twitter.com/RW3GVHHNkH
— Irish Rugby (@IrishRugby) August 9, 2023
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"Watching high-level sport like this, behind closed doors, it's just unbelievable," Horan continued.
"The intensity and the heat that the lads are playing in is just unbelievable, I'm sweating just standing here.
"And they're putting in a good shift against a nice Portuguese side, it's very interesting to watch how it's being played out.
"Hopefully we can keep it going, obviously in Ireland we're very excited about the prospects of this team and the World Cup and where we stand in that.
"It would be great, we're just missing one of those, that's all we're missing, we've done everything else, but I think this is the team to do it if we're going to do it."
Ireland will take on England at the Aviva Stadium on Saturday, August 19 [kick-off: 5.30pm].
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