Ryan: It’s important that we can have a bit of craic

Joe Schmidt may possess a reputation as a rugby anorak with an obsessive attention to detail but the Ireland head coach knows too that even the modern game has to make allowances for some old-school fun now and then.

The Kiwi was speaking about the mooted World League when he touched on some of the old values last Friday and, while the days of rugby players painting the town red in the middle of a tournament are long gone, then there is still a time and a place for some R&R.