Exposing astounding English naivety

IF ever a team captured the spirit of a nation, it was Ireland’s 22 proud heroes in Croke Park on Saturday.

You sensed something special was going to happen from the moment the teams were announced. A deafening roar accompanied the name of each Irish player. If anyone was in any doubt what the occasion meant to those players, one only had to look at the tear-strewn faces of John Hayes and Jerry Flannery before the start of the game.

The build up to this contest was dominated by matters other than rugby and a strange nervousness hung over the stadium in the moments prior to the national anthems. For the 40 seconds that it took to perform ‘God Save the Queen’, the eyes of the world were focused on a green field on the north-side of Dublin. One need not have worried.