Some of their favourite things

Mary Hannigan examines the logistical nightmare of keeping things sweet for pampered young men

If it's tricky enough working out how to get the figs in to the Fig Rolls, it's thornier still trying to remember which one of your 41 containers you put the Fig Rolls in. And if Roy Keane suddenly has an overwhelming craving for the snack, you can't keep him waiting until you unload all 41 before finding them (they'll be in the last one).

Organisation, that's what it takes. And Eddie Cox is your only man. When did you start planning, Eddie?

"The day we qualified," says the man from the FAI whose task it is to arrange the transportation of everything the Irish squad and staff will need out East. And by "everything" Cox means everything - by the sound of it, the only thing they're not bringing is Lansdowne Road.

First stop is Saipan, part of the United States-owned Mariana Islands, where the squad travelled yesterday. Then it's on to Izumo City, the base ahead of the opening group match against Cameroon, and then on to Chiba City, where they will stay for their remaining two group games, against Germany and Saudi Arabia. Then Cox will have to move camp for the second round, quarter-finals and semi-finals. At least he knows where they'll be for the final - Yokohama.

The logistics? Enough to bring on a blinding headache.

"DHL took 41 containers for us last Monday, 11 going to Saipan, the other 30 to Izumo City, where they've set up a place in the town hall to store everything that comes in from Ireland - they've been smashing. We had the Lord Mayor of Izumo City, Masahiro Nishio, here for the eircom awards and the deputy Lord Mayor of Chiba City marched behind Mick McCarthy in the St Patrick's Day parade. Both cities have been superb to us. By inviting them over here I reckoned they would reciprocate tenfold, and that's precisely what they've done.

"It's a huge task, though, getting everything there. I think the total weight of the 41 containers was about 650 kilos, so we couldn't have moved them ourselves on regular planes. DHL have their own carrier planes designed for this kind of thing.

What do you have to bring? "Well, the hotel in Saipan is the Hyatt Regency so that'll be fine, generally the hotels there are absolutely superb. Our hotel in Chiba even has an indoor golf course, so I don't think we'll want for anything there.

"There are the little things, like Snickers - we take a load of them. Fortunately they're one of our sponsors so the boys would be used to having boxes of them. What else? Tracker bars, Fig Rolls, little things that definitely won't be there. The lads will bring their own tea bags, to make sure they have their own tea, and they'll bring their own baked beans, to make sure they have their own baked beans! And Gatorade, plenty of that. But they're really all just snacks, the food in Japan will be fine, there'll be no problem there. You just know the lads'll be saying 'Where's me Snicker bar?', so it's things like that you have to bring.

"The one thing we don't bring is their boots, they'll carry them themselves. What they should do is take them on board in their hand luggage, you don't want to be breaking in a new pair of boots a few days before a World Cup match.

"We also have to take a supply of the Adidas World Cup footballs, training gear, all the kits, medical equipment and physiotherapy equipment, that would take up a lot of room - Martin Walsh, our doctor, will have his own container. With it being Japan I'm sure if we get stuck for something it won't be too difficult to find it. You just have to make sure you bring the little personal things from home that you wouldn't get there."

Cox, who leaves for Japan next Thursday, expects the hosts to be efficiency personified.

"We have an official gift to present before each match, a special piece from Waterford Crystal that will be inscribed, and then Jameson have also delivered a batch of whiskey to me - whiskey's a big thing out there, so it's nice to have an Irish brand like Jameson to have for gifts. It's just trying to make sure that you've got everything covered, if we meet somebody special we've got something for him."

And will you have a holiday when you get back? "No, this will be my holiday," he says.

Probably just as well, he'll have had enough of packing to last a lifetime.