Peter Jackson: Whatever happened to the drop goal?

Munster’s courageous recapture of Glasgow en route towards reinstating Limerick as Europe’s rugby capital raises a strange question this morning: What ever happened to the drop goal?

The nature of their clincher on Clydeside, aided and abetted by the opposition’s baffling aversion to taking the obvious late shot at goal, evoked memories of the humble drop being used to win one recent Grand Slam (Ronan O’Gara, 2009) and two extra-time World Cup finals (Jonny Wilkinson, 2003, Joel Stransky, 1995).

Above and beyond even those historic occasions, it reminded me of the greatest single exhibition of the art, of a sunny Sunday in Paris at the end of the last century when Jannie de Beer’s bombardment rained down on England from a great height – five drop goals in 32 minutes from a total range of 180 metres.