The last round in this Years Six nations comes to a head. Ireland, England & Wales are drawn so far but can Ireland pull it out of the bag to retain the Six Nations championship??? Find out this Saturday 21st March from 2.30pm in The George Bar.. Oh! and there’s Free Pizza.
Ireland faced Scotland off the back of a whipping from her old master.
Ballerina-footed Ollie Campbell and the greased ferret like elusiveness of Colin Patterson lead the charge, backed by southern musclemen, Donal Spring and first-time in green try scorer Moss Keane.
Niall Kiely wrote in the following Monday’s Irish Times:
Our resident Scotsman in a busy restaurant came from Troon, and named, inevitably one-felt, Brown. He had found problems to transcend the day’s woes, one of which led him to beseech every woman present for a needle and thread – a terrace scrimmage had seen him split his only pair of trousers – yet further tragedy stalked in that he had belatedly discovered that Galway , where he wanted to visit an old flame, was not a suburb of Dublin.
Mike Ross, Tommy Bowe, Jared Payne and Devin Toner (top) with Rose of Tralee, Maria Walsh (inside centre), at the all new Loopin terminal 1, Dublin Airport prior to their departure to Cardiff, Wales for their six nations match at the Cardiff Arms Park Nua.
It was the year the Hurricane blew away a young Stephen Hendry to win the Irish Masters Snooker Championship and Samuel Beckett passed away.
It was also the year a resurgent Ireland team traveled to the Cardiff Arms Park determined to banish the waning Welsh to a third successive defeat.
Noel Mannion’s block, clutch and gut-bursting carry paved the way.
Eileen Battersby wrote in the following Monday’s Irish Times:
Noel Mannion, grabbed the ball inside his own half and with the grace of a stampeding dray horse, showed the Welsh backs – and the rest of Wales – exactly how serious their rugby problems are when he scored 70 yards later.
“What have things come to when they can’t catch a number eight?”, asked the shaken Welshman in the sheepskin coat.
A Munster fan, a Leinster fan, an Ulster fan, and a Connacht fan gather to watch Ireland play in The Six Nations. They don’t necessarily agree on everything, but this is what makes Irish rugby fans the best rugby fans in the world.
RTÉ 2FM’s Off The BallSecond CaptainsGame On is back in the Aviva Lansdowne Road Nua Fan Studio tonight ahead of Sunday’s rugby international with England.
Broadcasting loive from 7pm in front of 50 Ireland fans, host, Hugh Cahill oversees a panel comprising Shane “Munch” Byrne, Alan Quinlan, Kevin McLaughlin, Gary Murphy and Bryan Cullen.
Wee’ Barry McGuigan, Live Aid, and Optimus Prime dominated our thoughts.
When many young people were forced to roll up their sleeves. And go sockless. Such was the pernickety fashion of the time.
And Ireland’s second ‘Tripler’ of the ’80s was within kicking distance.
The earlier fixture, postponed by a flurry of snow, led to this Ireland team famously decamping to O’Donoghue’s of Merrion Row, Dublin for a session St George-busting strategical think tank and wedgies.
It worked.
Irish coach Mick Doyle (top sitting far right) said:
“The lads were plucky, they wanted to win and it showed in the last 15 minutes, particularly in the way they tried to avoid doing the the expected things…”
Meanwhile, in the following Monday’s irish Times.
Rugby sage Edmund Van Esbeck was beside himself.
The strife is done now and the battle won: the tumult and the shouting have died away, the carnival is over but the memories will linger on.
Illustrious players and memorable matches have graced Lansdowne Road turf for well over a century now, but the happenings at this aristocratic among rugby grounds last Saturday will be indelibly etched into the history of the game and the minds of all 50,000 people who saw Ireland beat England by 13 points to 10. The prize for that victory is the Triple Crown and International Championship…
Some of you think England are the next best side in the 6 Nations Championship after Ireland.
Some of you would even like to see England’s Mike Brown in green.
Alan Quinlan, commenting on the Ulster Bank rugby survey said:
Once again the Ulster Bank Rugby Survey has thrown up some very interesting results from fans across the country. Most interestingly for me is our backing of England in this year’s World Cup but no doubt that will be forgotten during this weekend’s contest
In the year Nelson Mandela is awarded the freedom of the City of Dublin in its millennium year and the Lotto went loive, It was also Italy’s first international appearance at full level against one of the home nations.
Little idea in the line-out, no concerted pattern in the ruck or maul and vulnerable in the extreme around the fringes of the scrum..
And that was just the Irish.
Edmund Van Esbeck wrote:
That was a frustrating exercise. There was absolutely nothing in that match to enrich the memory of the occasion. The manner and lack of quality in the Ireland performance was disturbing. There was very little to admire and basically nothing to encourage.