Drinking at the last chance saloon

EVERY cloud has a silver lining but the old adage hardly looked appropriate on February 5th, 2000, after England had inflicted a humiliating 50-18 defeat on the Irish rugby team at Twickenham.

If there was a redeeming feature from a feeble Irish performance, it was that England were very good on the day. Jonny Wilkinson was in his pomp, spinning out devastating skip passes to which Brian O'Driscoll and Co didn't have any response, and the tries flowed with embarrassing regularity. Then Irish coach Warren Gatland, as always, sat there quietly, absorbed what was happening and decided only desperate action could remedy a desperate situation.

A few days later, he announced five changes in the Irish back division and three more in the pack for the visit of Scotland. More than half the Twickenham team paid the price, something almost unheard of where the management of the professional game in this country was concerned. Many thought Gatland had gone too far, but subsequent results proved him right, and indeed as many as seven of those who benefited from the English debacle are still members of the Irish squad, while two of those who survived the axe are still very much to the fore.