A waning force, but Manning hopes for fairytale farewell in Santa Clara

Although it may be relatively new to Ireland’s sporting vernacular, the notion of ‘paralysis by analysis’ has long since been a staple of the American discourse.

Media coverage across the Atlantic has always been a trial by numbers, games played out on paper first and turf second.

Given the swathes of statistics at their disposal, the fact that commentators continually find themselves resorting to kindergarten rhetoric can therefore feel like something of a paradox.