Selection of Slammers: Picking cream of the crop from 2009 and ‘18

Ciarán Ó Raghallaigh picks an Irish XV comprising of the 2009 Grand Slam team and the team that will chase that title on Saturday. 

How do you compare two gems and pick the most beautiful? Weight, cut, price? So often there’s no objective way to decide how to best appreciate something — and that’s the sense ahead of tomorrow’s potential Grand Slam decider in Twickenham.

A third ever slam — how will this team be seen in comparison with the side that took the honours in 2009, ending a drought that lasted over half a century.