The anatomy of a sporting bandwagon

WITH little enough to keep us going at all these days, weeks like the one Rory McIlroy and Conor Niland gave us mean all the more. But even in better times, the life-affirming rallies known as Irish sporting bandwagons have been good to us.

Heineken came along and gave us an appreciation of our provincial boundaries the Railway Cup just couldn’t manage. Padraig Harrington filled pitch and putt courses, Cian O’Connor and Eddie Macken before him compelled small boys to slap themselves on the backside scaling deckchairs on the lawn. Roche and Kelly made every cycle to school a peloton. The cricket lads, ah, made us watch cricket for a couple of days.

Tennis, however, has never really been the subject of a true bandwagon before. By now, of course, we have returned to the serious business of GAA and soccer transfers. But first, there was a ten-step programme to follow.