I had to think long and hard about selecting my sportsperson of the year and while Rory McIlroy and Katie Taylor would be top of the list for most people, it was the latter’s gold medal performance at the Olympics that inspired my choice.

1 Restructuring the Heineken Cup

THERE is a famous picture hanging in the headquarters of the ACT Brumbies in Canberra.

There’s been a lot of weeping and gnashing of teeth since the Irish whitewash in Europe over the weekend but it is about time people start to realise that we have no divine right to be winning Heineken Cups with the regularity we’ve enjoyed in recent times.

You could have substituted South African World Cup-winning captain John Smit’s comments after last week’s trip to Thomond Park with those expressed by his illustrious Springbok predecessor Francois Pienaar all of 13 seasons ago.

1. Help the cause:

On a weekend when defeat for all four Irish sides in Europe was not beyond the bounds of possibility, a return of three from four with a losing bonus point procured from the only defeat was exceptional considering the quality of opposition faced.

FOR the third season in-a-row, the best two sides in the Heineken Cup meet outside the decider itself.

French approach

It was in March of 2011 when I first formed the opinion that the future of English rugby was in safe hands having just witnessed their Under 20 side dish out a 15-46 hammering to Ireland in a Six Nations clash in Athlone.