Lansdowne fear factor Ireland’s trump card

IN THESE troubled times it is the practice for teams and athletes to check with their governments if overseas travel to a sporting event is a safe or sensible course of action.

With this in mind it might occur to England rugby coach Clive Woodward to look up the British Foreign and Commonwealth Office website for the latest travel advice on visits to Dublin this weekend. Because if Lansdowne Road were a country you would be sure that any foreign government would advise its sporting ambassadors to give it a wide berth.

That was certainly the thrust of the distinctly undiplomatic advice given by former England forward Paul Ackford in the Sunday Telegraph last weekend. The policeman capped 22 times by his country at lock used his column to describe Lansdowne Road as a dump, a disgrace and far and away the worst international stadium of the Six Nations.