JOHNNY WATTERSONlooks on as the Cork star tries to get the rugby team representing his native Fiji to get to grips with the game of hurling

SEÁN ÓG Ó hAilpín has both hands raised in the air, with a hurley in his right. “This,” he says, “is the correct way to grip it.” He slides his left hand down from the boss. “Left under right. Do you play cricket or golf? It’s not like that.”

Around him the entire Fijian rugby squad, each with a hurley and sliotar, seem amused and interested.

Ó hAilpín has just told them he is from the Fijian island of Rotuma. They have little idea who he is but within seconds the iconic Cork hurler has their attention. Chicken Caesar salads on hold, the lunch trade in the Radisson Hotel also looks on enthralled. Thirty-odd Fijian rugby players waving hurleys out on the back lawn. Very postmodern.

With Ó hAilpín’s physique he could pass as one of the professionals. Just a few more pounds of muscle would complete the make-over. They ask him if he gets paid for hurling. He tells them he works in the bank and that’s his job, but if, say, a shoe company wants him to endorse their product, well, game on.

For the Fiji team as much as for the GAA money has become an important, even a defining issue. They cannot attract the finance of top countries like Ireland or the dominant Southern Hemisphere sides, and even before they embarked on this tour, the issue again raised its head.

The best of their players are scattered around England and France, with captain Sereimaia Bai based in Clermont.

Before their game against Scotland last week, they assembled for just three days.

“For us it’s (finance) been a problem, but the Fijian rugby union has done a great job looking for sponsors,” says Bai. “It is not an easy thing to find sponsors when the national team is not doing well on the paddock. They’ve been trying their best to get a team together and to get games. But it’s really, really frustrating.”

Fiji lost to Scotland and they see Ireland as Australia did, a step up in quality and a bigger challenge. Grand Slam champions has a resonance way beyond Europe. Bai, like Nicky Little or tighthead prop Deacon Manu, is familiar with the Leinster backline or the Munster pack, but the younger players aren’t.

“That does help, knowing players,” says Bai. “But we haven’t played against the likes of (Gordon) D’Arcy and (Brian) O’Driscoll and the Leinster back line. We are just trying to concentrate on ourselves and what we can do to improve as a team. There are positive things for us. It will be a challenge on Saturday, but we will do our best.

“Scotland was our first game together and there were a lot of new caps. We are in a situation where we are trying to build with players coming in. There are a lot of changes, but we learned a lot. Now it’s very, very important we stay positive. We know we can do better but we will take a lot out of that game.”

In Ireland, the team will have a further six days as coach Glen Ella welds the hardened Test players with the new entrants. Building towards the World Cup, where they reached the quarter-finals last time, is the target.

“Building up the squad is tough. Before Scotland we had three days and you can’t win a Test match like that; even one week is not enough,” says the captain. “We are trying our best to pull a team together, and we’ll go out there, and hopefully coming back together (can help). Time is not an excuse. A Test match is a Test match.”

Their flip-flops hardly the ideal foot wear, they whack the sliotars across the lawns. Perhaps for the only time this week, the Fijian rugby team and the game of hurling look playfully benign.