2015 Rugby World Cup: Usain Bolt's visit to the Ireland national rugby camp
The World’s fastest man Usain Bolt visited the Ireland national rugby team at their team camp just ahead of their clash against England. The Jamaican sprinter spent a full hour with the squad in joining them for dinner at the behest of the Irish management.
The Irish team manager Michael Kearney commented on the visit by the sprinter, “I think everyone got a bit of a surprise and he was fantastic. He sat down and did a Q&A for the guts of an hour. He stood in for photos with all the lads and then had dinner with them, and I must say he came across as an extraordinarily humble, nice guy,” as The Irish Times reports.
“I relax. I listen to music”- Bolt
The Ireland National Rugby team is there in England to take part in the upcoming 2015 Rugby World Cup and are ranked at 2nd position in the rugby world rankings.
The manager added, “For the lads to see someone like Usain Bolt, who has won 11 of the last 12 major sprints in Olympics and World Championships, come in and just be so humble and so giving of his time and mingle with the lads was a really good experience. The feedback was really good, the lads really enjoyed it.”
However, the sprinter didn’t give the team any advice related to playing rugby as he hadn’t played the game himself in his life. “I relax. I listen to music” was the sprinter’s reply when asked about what he did to motivate himself.
“It is about how he’s feeling himself”-Best
While the hooker Rory Best gave the players perspective of Bolt’s visit to their national team camp. He said, “He is such an iconic figure in the word of sport. There wouldn’t be many people that would be more recognizable. The big thing, from our point of view, was just that he says when he goes into championships and he feels good, he knows he’s going to perform. It’s not necessarily about how events leading into it have gone. It is about how he’s feeling himself.”
Ireland will start their World Cup campaign against Canada on Saturday.