WE love a good flanker down here.

The scoresheet in the hurling included an unlikely name: M. Moynihan 0-2, (0-1f). The World Cup comes around every four years.

THE BRIEF from the top at ERC was straightforward: “your mission, should you choose to accept, is to select the best European side of the last 15 years comprised of players who played in either the Heineken or Challenge Cup competitions”.

WHEN France winger Vincent Clerc scored in the dying moments in Croke Park last Sunday I couldn’t help but recall the moment Michael Lynagh scored in the Wanderers corner in the last minute of Ireland’s World Cup quarter-final against Australia in 1991. The nightmare returned.

ONE HUNDRED and twenty eight years after the first ball was kicked in anger, the curtain finally came down on international action at the world’s oldest rugby arena yesterday.

ALL’S well that ends well. Twickenham was a great place to be last Saturday. For the countless thousands of Irish people working across the water, Saturday’s game was all the sweeter. To win a Triple Crown at any stage is a welcome achievement. To do so with the last play of the game at the home of the reigning world champions made it more noteworthy.