Wow, what a win!
Though they had blown it!
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Wow, what a win!
Though they had blown it!
Not a fan of rugby but that was fantastic
Not a fan either but I always watch the 6 nations. Was amazed how confident the Irish rugby community was going in to this game despite a record of a handful of wins in Paris over the past few decades. Apparently Ireland had the better team on paper and the better form coming in to the game but home advantage counts so much and sport is often a lottery. The TV 3 commentator was talking about Grand Slams just before the French scored their try.
Who is the TV3 front man who seems to have a perpetual smirk ?
The drop goal will remain one of the iconic moments in Irish sport especially if Ireland wins the Championship. Sport at its best.
Strange nobody has posted about the rugby Grand Slam. Let me be the first then. I am not overly fond of Dublin supporters who follow rugby. I was given a ticket to the Scottish game. I heard one lad saying to his mate: "Hey Johnny, are you going to the Sporr (Spar)?". As I went through the barriers, I saw a woman in an ankle length fur coat and matching hat and then while walking up the stairs, I heard a father say to his son "Roger, can you get me a Merlot". All my preconceived stereo types had been confirmed. Ireland's Call was sung with greater gusto than the anthem and colours were not greatly in evidence except by the Scots, many of whom walked to the game behind a bagpipe - I liked that. The match itself, because my interest was only middling, didn't set the pulse racing and to me the atmosphere was muted - perhaps because we were expected to beat the Scots. We got the breaks and they fluffed their lines.
So Twickenham. I turned down two tickets to this game but watched it with great interest and was delighted to see Ireland win an elusive Grand Slam. Much hype was made about the performance and our defence but it ended up 3 tries apiece. We won because we kicked the conversions and a penalty. English fluffed their conversions and turned down number shots at goal. The tries were something of an anti-climax waiting for referee decisions but it was a great result to go and beat England on their own turf and to achieve the GS for only the third time ever. I hope the video referral won't kill the spontaneous ecstasy of football goals as well.
Much of the social media I have seen is not celebrating the win but gloating over beating England. If we had seen the reverse happening if England beat us, there would be outrage in Ireland. Disappointing: not that I am disappointed that it was against England that Ireland sealed the GS. That was sweet but we should be over the gloating business at this stage.
So well done to Ireland winning the GS. However, I would be inclined to think that if we were in a football league every year with Eng, Scot, Wales and France (forget about Italy for the moment), we would have won more than 3 grand slams but that's just conjecture.