They were patting down sweat-filled brows around RTÉ’s control bunker yesterday as Montrose battled technical glitches at the start of Hugh Cahill and Donal Lenihan’s television commentary from Yokohama.

For weeks on end, a veritable posse of law enforcers queued up to hammer the warning home, that dangerous tackles meant instant dismissal.

New Zealand bounced back from their record Test defeat to thrash Australia 36-0 in Auckland.

Christian Lealiifano steered Australia to a 16-10 Rugby Championship victory over Argentina upon returning to the Test stage following his battle with leukaemia.

Beauden Barrett scored a record four tries as New Zealand routed Australia 40-12 at Eden Park to retain the Bledisloe Cup.

ACT Brumbies back row Pete Samu is the standout absentee from Michael Cheika’s Wallabies squad — which features five uncapped players — to face Ireland in the forthcoming June Test series

Australia have beaten Scotland 23-22 in their international match at Murrayfield.

Australia cruised to a 12th successive victory over woeful Wales as they ran their hosts ragged at the Principality Stadium.

There was relief all round for Michael Cheika and his Wallabies after they secured their first win in seven test matches with a sometimes nervous win over S Africa in Brisbane on Saturday.

Israel Dagg scored two first-half tries as New Zealand made it back-to-back wins over defending champions Australia in the Rugby Championship.

Michael Cheika is reluctant to heed fresh calls to shift Israel Folau to the centres as the Wallabies travel to Wellington striving to arrest their worst losing streak in more than a decade.