An Irish Grand Slam and a Lions Party

It wasn’t a great championship this year, though few in Ireland can be expected to give a damn about that. And while there are plenty of folk who might think that Ireland’s Grand Slam (sixty one years in the waiting) was hardly vintage stuff, that’s often been the case with Grand Slam winning sides. The great England team of the early 1990s didn’t play much champagne rugby while outside observers might say the same thing, and with some reason too, of Scotland’s twin triumphs in 1984 and 1990. Nonetheless, there’s little denying that there was no truly outstanding team in the championship this year. Apart from their performance against France Ireland were efficient rather than spectacular and rather too reminiscent of to many joyless Munster teams of years gone by.

Wales, I’m glad to say, failed to live up to the hype. Perhaps now people will cease assuming that Warren Gatland is some kind of coaching genius.