New generation of players oblivious to history books

It was the France of Platini, Giresse, and Tigana that mesmerised us first. Between 1982 and 1986, that generation of French footballers bewitched and bewildered those of us already hopelessly in love with the game of football. The only time most of us were caught on the fence was when they faced Brazil.

Their rugby counterparts were equally alluring. How quaint to think about it now, but the very sight of TV images from Paris offered a glimpse into an impossibly exotic world: One of funny coloured rugby balls, cockerels, the bearpit that was the Parc des Princes and a collection of backs who were as tantalising as their forwards were tough.

Blanco, Berbizier, Lafond, Sella, Dubroca. Their names alone made them a thing of wonder. They traumatised Irish sides for generations, home and away, and the punishment rarely let up even as the fortunes of their national team began to wax and wane into the new millennium and Ireland found their feet in the new professional age.