All aboard the party bus, as Ireland banish mental scars

It was just of 5pm local time, four hours before kick-off, when an open-topped party bus stopped in traffic outside the Ireland team’s hotel in the centre of Copenhagen. The music was blaring — Fergie of the Black Eyed Peas singing about her “lovely lady lumps”, in case you were wondering — and the two dozen or so women on board were in fine spirits. Maybe even sipping on a few, too.

The dining room for Mick McCarthy’s squad overlooked the main street from a few floors up and it would have been impossible for them not to have heard — or seen — the raucous scenes. Indeed, more than a few bodies in their luminous green training gear could be seen coming to the window.