The Irish rugby squad were given an "inspirational" speech by Nando Parrado, one of the Uruguayan rugby players who survived the 1972 Andes plane crash portrayed in the movie Alive.
Andy Farrell's panel are in Portugal getting ready for four autumn internationals starting with Friday night week’s clash with New Zealand at Aviva Stadium.
As part of their preparation, Parrado, one of the members of the Old Christians Rugby Club who were on their way to Chile for a rugby tour, spoke to the squad about his experience.
Twenty-nine of 45 people on board, including Parrado’s mother and sister, died in or after the accident.
In order to stay alive the survivors had to eat the flesh of the deceased.
Parrado, now a motivational speaker, businessman and author, and Roberto Canessa made their way down from the mountain over two months after the crash to raise the alarm, leading to the rescue of the 14 remaining survivors on the mountain.
"He came and spoke to the group when we arrived in camp," said defence coach Easterby.
"Just an inspirational figure in terms of what he and his team-mates went through.
"Terrible conditions. I didn’t realise.
"He was obviously one of 17 players on that flight but he also had his mother and his sister on the flight and he lost them in the accident.
"He spent two-and-a-half months trying to figure out a way of staying alive. It was really inspirational. Some of it you could relate to because of his rugby background.
"The team that he played with has a shamrock on the jersey and he obviously has a known affiliation too as he had been taught growing up by the Christian Brothers.
"So there was familiarity and similarities. A real inspiration and interesting to hear from someone who had come through that and come out the other side to live a very full life."
Asked how the players responded to the talk, he added: "Shock, I think.
"I don’t think they quite believed… Maybe a lot of people had seen the old Alive film and there has been another more recent one made as well (Society of the Snow).
"Until you hear from people who were actually there you don’t fully appreciate what they went through and how much they relied on each other and were able to work through some very tough times and come out the other side.
"Obviously, they lost a lot of family and friends along the way. A very inspiring story."
Ireland face the All Blacks for the first time since losing the World Cup quarter-final last year and Easterby, who will take over as interim head coach when Andy Farrell departs for Lions duty after November, said the squad is looking forward to the re-match.
"It's brilliant," he said.
"There is that little bit of rivalry between ourselves and New Zealand over the last couple of years. They got one over on us the last time we met in Paris.
"They've had a change in their coaching set-up with a number of individuals coming into their group that would be different from what we've experienced before.
"There's a bit of difference and they've lost some senior players. We're trying to progress and evolve as well.
"It's a nice storyline, they've come off the back of the Japan game and have to play England this weekend.
"It's our first game for a good while so there's lots of sub-plots but essentially we're playing against New Zealand at the Aviva on a Friday night, we want to make sure we hit the ground running and the history behind that will probably be something you guys [the media] talk about a little bit more."
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