A good week for Irish rugby

IT’S not every week you get a chance to see Australia and New Zealand in the flesh, even if the experiences in Thomond Park and the Aviva Stadium were poles apart.

Keith Earls was the only one to sample the respective merits of both and I am sure the fact that he matched his father’s achievement in downing Australian colours in the red of Munster went down well in the Earls household. At least he won’t have to listen to his old man going on about that game back in 1992 anymore.

In the circumstances, it proved to be a pretty good week for Irish rugby. The fallout from Ticketgate was put on the back burner, temporarily at least, as a decent crowd turned up on Saturday and were treated to a spectacle of how good this game can be when both sides are tuned in to the possibilities created by the new interpretation of law.