Ireland's Six Nations joy all the more precious for their struggles

Six Nations Talking Points: Adieu to old warriors. Are England back in business? What price relegation?

AADIEU? Ireland’s Peter O’Mahony. Picture: ©INPHO/Dan Sheridan

Phew! What a relief

Thank goodness the Six Nations is a tournament and not a knock-out event. No World Cup desolation. No hollow-eyed stares. No shaking off the head in disbelief. Irish fans may have felt bereft and hard done-by five months ago in France, feeling that due recompense had been snatched away from them. There was no such emptiness here, even if a historic back-to-back Grand Slam had eluded them and even though they had to scrap and wrestle and bide their time to get across the line against teeth-clenched Scotland.