Ireland’s Conor Murray and Jacob Stockdale revealed that their evening with rockstar Bono consisted of a little bit of singing and plenty of patriotic talk.
The U2 frontman spent almost two hours with the squad as they prepare for their Guinness Six Nations clash against England this Sunday.
Head coach Andy Farrell has said he wants to instill an identity in his team and enlisted the help of music legend to provide some inspiration, which according to Stockdale, the team were “bang into”.
“Faz [Farrell] wants to give us a bit of identity. He is doing that through our training and things like talking to Bono,” said Stockdale.
“Last night he spoke about ‘Irishness’, what it means to Irish and what’s special about it. I think that’s definitely something Faz has brought in and something we as a team are bang into.”
Bono, born and bred in Dublin, met the squad at Ireland’s training centre in the capital earlier in the week as they look to make it three wins from as many matches in the Championship.
Murray admitted the team “sang a little bit” with Bono – without divulging the song – but says the chance to hear him speak was “unbelievable”.
“It was cool to hear him talk about his life experiences and how he views the world,” said the scrum-half.
“You realise what he has done outside of music in terms of charity and the people he has dealt with politically.
“He is just a huge personality and he was unbelievable to hear him speak. [He is] unbelievably intelligent and a well-articulated guy. It was a really, really cool evening.”
