“It was 1998. I just answered an admin job ad in the paper; I had no idea it was rugby…” so says Joan Breslin (née Moore ) about her first foray into the world of rugby administration almost 25 years ago. After working in marketing for Clarinbridge Crystal and Dunlop Tyres in Galway, Joan’s career as a backroom ‘blazer’ with the IRFU and Six Nations tournament took off. Now she finds herself at the apex of the professional game as World Rugby’s project coordinator for the 2023 Rugby World Cup in France.
“My job is basically the logistics of knowing what job everyone does at the World Cup, and how the whole thing fits together,” says Joan. Working for Amy Bell, the overall Rugby World Cup Projects Manager, Joan coordinates a team of 200 World Rugby staff and officials, each of whom may have individual responsibility for numerous officials, teams, match commissioners, anti-doping staff, media, sponsors and all the myriad specialisms necessary to pull a 48-game international tournament together.
“The hardest part so far was probably the first three weeks in France, trying to set the whole thing up in 35 degree heat. One of the very first days was playing a giant game of Jenga: organising 180 big boxes of uniforms and kit for all the officials. The early organisation behind this tournament was phenomenal: Zoom calls in the middle of the night and booking staff on flights from all over – from places as distant as Argentina, Australia and Samoa.”
Joan plays down her huge responsibility in organising what, by all accounts, has been a hugely successful competition in France. Instead, she dwells on the day-to-day human aspects that armchair supporters might not appreciate.
Minding the World Cup
“Driving a big Landrover Defender hybrid around busy Paris has been – ahem – interesting,” says the self-confessed petrol head. “It’s a tournament sponsor’s vehicle from Jaguar Landrover. They said I could drive it if necessary, but not through the Arc de Triomphe.”
Joan recalls collecting the “priceless” Webb Ellis Rugby World Cup trophy from the gothic vaults of the Societe Generale bank on Haussmann Boulevard, and tensely handling it on Parisian public transport in its specialised case designed to be secure, but inconspicuous. Was she nervous it would be stolen or lost on an Irishwoman’s watch? “I had my passport with me as ID to sign it out, so I suppose my getaway plan was half-organised already,” she jokes.
Could Ireland host a world cup? Is Galway good enough? Could we one day see All Blacks clashing with Pumas in Pearse Stadium? Springboks at The Sportsground? Tonga in… um… Tuam?
“Watching France 2023 unfold, two things stand out: The volunteers; this can’t work without them. Secondly, sustainability. For example, everything is done by train here, in Paris and around France. A modern world cup will need a massive investment in infrastructure in Ireland.”
Ostensibly neutral as a World Rugby employee, Joan admits tears in her eyes when Ireland was knocked out by New Zealand in the quarter finals. “I genuinely thought they were going to do it. I met a lot of former IRFU colleagues and former Ireland players afterward. Everyone’s heartbroken.”
Joan cites her almost two decades with the IRFU and Six Nations as professional preparation for working on staging a world cup. However, it’s her education in Galway that the Salerno past-pupil recalls as the true foundation: “It’s all thanks to Madame Dorothy O’Malley, our French teacher. Although I never really used much French in the past, it’s come back to me, and I couldn’t do this job as well without it, so merci madame!”
Joan grew up in Rockmount, Claregalway. Her parents, the late John and Treasa Moore, established Rockmount Riding Centre there, where generations of Galwegians learned how not to fall off ponies. Showjumping was the family’s passion and business, but it was a rugby household too: former UCG player and Connacht chairman John Moore was president of the IRFU from 1981 to 1982, the year – Joan proudly notes – Ireland won the Triple Crown for the first time since 1949.
“I’ve always loved rugby, and Galwegians was our team growing up,” says Joan, who now lives in Dublin. Her husband Shane is a chemical engineer from Dublin. Her son Josh (18 ), plays Senior Cup rugby for CBC Monkstown, and daughter Katie (20 ) is studying sport science in UCD. Who does Joan support now? “A.B.L.,” she asserts. “Anyone. But. Leinster! My husband is Leinster. My children have grown up in Dublin, and they just don’t get it.”
You can take the girl out of Galway, but you can’t take the Galway out of the girl? “Absolutely. Now I have to go. It’s my one precious day off this week, and I’m going to wander Montmartre in the rain.”
With the final looming this weekend as the finale of years of work from hundreds of staff and volunteers, one suspects Joan craves a bit of quiet, before the storm.
The 2023 Rugby World Cup final – New Zealand v South Africa – starts 8pm, Saturday, October 28.
