Hopes dry up after a green power failure

ON and off the pitch, there was enough green power in Croke Park on Saturday night to reverse climate change. But not enough, as it turned out, to overcome a freak of nature.

Or, at least, that’s the most simplistic, not to say sympathetic, gloss to be put on a game in which familiar Irish strength could not mask familiar Irish deficiency.

While it’s tempting to nutshell the first leg of the World Cup play-off as a tale of two deflections – Patrice Evra’s intentional effort to deny Liam Lawrence and Sean St Ledger’s accidental assist for Nicolas Anelka – the real story of the game is, inevitably, more complex than that.