Thorny US-Canada relations freeze once again as the icemen cometh

The US-Canada dynamic is an enjoyable experience for a bystander, a comically fraught relationship with both sides playing up to their respective national caricatures.

It’s especially interesting to observe from an Irish point of view given our own complex history with our nearest, largest neighbour.

Of course there isn’t quite the same legacy of political upheaval out of which you’d be able to mine a sufficiently bitter sporting rivalry but there remains an adequate level of tension and suspicion to keep the whole thing ticking along.