There are chinks in All Black armour

AS A rule, there are better ways to spend an evening than driving two hours on unfamiliar roads to spend 80 minutes freezing in a stadium as rain smashes horizontally into your face, before turning around and driving back across the country again.

But this was not to be missed. As a New Zealander your DNA is programmed to enjoy the simple things — hokey-pokey ice cream, cold beer and hot pies to name a few — but nothing gives us quite as much pleasure as seeing Australia beaten.

So the prospect of Munster tipping over the Wallabies made the return trip from Dublin to Limerick a bit of a no-brainer. Who would have thought that 80 minutes of grinding, tryless, error-strewn rugby could be so beautiful?