Fighting Irish come up short

Ireland 23 Barbarians 29

While it wasn’t enough to fully compensate for a very poor opening 40 minutes which left them trailing 21-10 at the interval, it gave the lie to the belief that the Irish squad no longer has the appetite for any more rugby after a long, arduous and relatively unsuccessful campaign.

The arrival of a number of well-established players such as Donncha O’Callaghan, Mick O’Driscoll, Jerry Flannery and Tommy Bowe had much to do with the revival and some of the football played in the final half hour was of the highest quality.