Dunphy v Giles: It’s the best soap opera in town

IT SEEMS like we’ve only just wiped the last trace of sushi from our lips and here we’re going again, tracking the boys in green to far off fields.

Happily, this afternoon’s European Championship opener against Russia is coming live from Moscow to a television set near you, as well as to the one in the pub down the road. Today, for 90 minutes at least, rows about pay per view and whether or not Irish football has unique cultural value, can be put on hold. But whether even an absent Roy Keane can be kept out of the spotlight for that long is a moot point.

Last Saturday, Roy was present and incorrect on The Premiership on RTE, his sly dig to the head of Jason McAteer, and subsequent red card, ensuring that everything else would have to play second fiddle. The producers were probably delighted - nothing keeps bums on seats quite like a bit of controversy, after all - but Bill O’ Herlihy, like Basil Fawlty, had the uncomfortable look of a man who’d started out with the best of intentions only for the whole thing to blow up in his face.