When Elvis Vermeulen left Ireland all shook up

The Six Nations has a penchant for choreographing finales from the sublime to the faintly ridiculous, never more so than when a man called Elvis played the cruellest of tricks on Ireland.

They have lost more than a few titles in time-honoured fashion but never in the foyer of a Roman hotel standing amongst other guests peering at a television monitor screening the dying moments of a match in Paris.

As last stands go, it remains in a class all by itself, a case of the helpless suffering at the hands of the hapless.