Easy to pin hopes on just one sport!

IT’S NOT easy being green. When Switzerland’s footballers stamped Brian Kerr’s P45 on the twelfth of last month it signalled the end of Irish hopes of reaching the World Cup, and our Gaelic footballers had their clocks cleaned in Australia a fortnight ago.

Last Saturday's 45-7 annihilation by New Zealand in Lansdowne Road rounded off a miserable four weeks for Irish sports fans. A new dark age for Irish sport, suitably inaugurated by the blackest jerseys in any code?

Looking at the last month in isolation could give the impression of irreversible and hopeless decline for a country that prides itself on its passion for sport, but therein lies the point. Last Saturday showed the difference between a country with a passion for sport, and a country with a passion for a single sport.