Pundits told to go to Hell

AMIDST all the recent and highly justified hoopla about All-Ireland finals and Ryder Cups, world titles won in rowing and showjumping, one continuing heroic Irish performance is lost.

I refer to the Connacht rugby team, unbeaten in the current Celtic League. The Celtic League? I can almost hear the derisive gasp, but you're wrong, pal, dead wrong.

Our good friend Ollie Cromwell (not to be confused with Ollie Campbell, an even more deadly finisher from a later era) is credited with coining the phrase To Hell or to Connacht, and in its own peculiar way, in Irish rugby, that phrase is still very much alive today. I say this with the utmost respect for the lads currently playing in their prideful green jersey, but Connacht is the leftover province, picking up the leftover bits after the big three, Munster, Leinster and Ulster have taken the so-called cream of Irish rugby. In fact, they're lucky to be alive at all, because only a couple of years ago, the IRFU boffins wanted to have done with them altogether to Hell with Connacht, so to speak, as part of a cost-cutting exercise. And yet, week after week, they are achieving results far above their perceived station.