Victims of our own success?

HAVING successfully negotiated a potentially damaging opening fixture in Murrayfield, Ireland’s prospects for the Six Nations championship are extremely bright.

The win, and the manner in which it was achieved, continues a trend established by our provincial sides in Europe this season. The performances of our representative sides have drawn positive comment and admiration from sources not normally accustomed to praising the Irish. The game in this country is enjoying unprecedented popularity.

A by-product of this on-field success is that many of our players, even those outside the national team, are now becoming familiar to a host of club coaches in Europe. All professional set-ups undertake detailed video and written analysis on opposing teams. We saw recently the volume of information Gloucester had on Munster, courtesy of our alert Limerick taxi driver. As a result, the quality of our players is now fully appreciated and could result in tempting financial approaches from overseas.