IRB can’t wash hands on choking furore

HEADING back up the boreen towards the hut on the hills on my regular daily constitutional yesterday morning, it was heartening to see the long shadow being cast before me, almost the first occasion this year.

Yes, the sun finally appeared, no sign of the rain nor the rainclouds that so darkened our days for weeks on end — hopefully a sign of things to come.

Opening my paper, however, reading of events in Murrayfield on Saturday last, another long shadow was cast, but a shadow far less welcome.