Ireland ’08: We’ll win the Grand Slam, but we may lose Bertie

WISE old political commentators who made their names by predicting the outcome of elections and other momentous events used to have a saying when things went wrong.

Predictions don’t always work out because politics, as we all know, isn’t an exact science. But getting things wrong never bothered a political commentator because he (or she) could always say “it was right when I wrote it”.

So, if you don’t believe my predictions about what’s going to happen in 2008, I’ll draw comfort from the fact that they are correct as I write them. The political ones may start to go wrong tomorrow, but as long as my sporting predictions hold good, I’ll be happy.