Andy Farrell's Ireland find the perfect emotional pitch

Mack Hansen, the Australian back with Irish roots, described a “strong and powerful” evening that brought home just how much “bother” this island has endured down the years, and how much of an achievement it was in keeping the sport under one umbrella throughout it all.

EMOTIONAL SCENES: The Ireland team stand for the national anthems. Pic: ©INPHO/Dan Sheridan

Emotion doesn’t have free rein in sport anymore. 

The days when it could wander through a dressing-room at will, to be summoned at an arbitrary time without thought for time or place, are over. Not so much dispensed with as corralled into a corner for safer keeping.