The World Cup - Very best, very worst

THIS morning we can, not for the first or last time, look abroad to see the Irish perform at their very best.

Declan Kidney’s team gave an uplifting performance in Dunedin to secure a World Cup quarter final date with Wales at the crack of the Irish dawn next Saturday.

Ireland can look forward to this with the resolve and ambition rooted in the hard experience earned over more than a decade in the Irish professional game for some of the central players and coaches.

What was remarkable too, and more than a little sad, was the huge number of people at the far end of the world happy to support the country that could not offer them a future. A great number of those wearing the green in New Zealand are emigrants who left these shores recently or the children of others who left in earlier decades.

Yesterday we saw the best of the Irish and the worst of Ireland all under one roof. Both of these extremes can be harnessed in a hugely positive way. Next Saturday would be as good a time as any.