Red-faced but really feeling the Blues

GO UP to Cork Airport, or roll out the road to Shannon today, or tomorrow morning, and you’ll clock them immediately in the queues.

Self-effacing people who are almost apologetic about their presence. If you make eye contact with them they suddenly become interested in imaginary lint on their jacket sleeves or the reflective qualities of the polish on their shoes.

They’re not whistling tunelessly and looking up at the ceiling, but they might as well be: meet the Meinsters, the people who booked their tickets to the Heineken Cup final in anticipation of Munster participating in same, and who now face a weekend in Edinburgh with the blues, not the reds.