Peter Jackson: Slugfest worth the money

They paid €20m to be ringside in Cardiff yesterday for the collision of Europe’s only two unbeaten contenders and the rewriting of one family’s tragic World Cup story.

A duel of unrelenting ferocity ended with France in disarray and Ireland the last team standing. Staggering would have been a more accurate word given the sledgehammer blows they took in the course of settling a punishing score from South Africa 20 years ago.

No sooner had the box-office record at the Millennium Stadium been shattered than some of the hardest nuts in the game were in danger of suffering the same fate — and the opening shot of the slug-fest threatens to have serious repercussions.