No England versus Ireland,
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Flying head butt.
The French look very tired already
Ireland v England was on RTE because it was in Dublin and Sky didn’t have rights to that.
England v Ireland in Twickers wasn’t on RTE because it was a Sky-exclusive event. These were the 1998, 2000 and 2002 games.
The RFU basically tried to wipe the eye of the other Home Nations and the organisers of the Five/Six Nations by going it alone on television rights.
The other nations quite rightly brought them to heel and England and Sky were eventually forced to accept that their exclusive rights deal could not encompass Six Nations games, starting with the 2003 edition.
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Rocks or diamonds with Russell.
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Great rip from hogg
Blatantly crooked throw-in there by the French
There’s a fragility to these frogs
This Georgian ref is a real homer. France can do as they like.
One of those Ireland v England games in that time frame was the 2001 foot and mouth game held in October when England were going for the Grand Slam. That was broadcast live by RTE and BBC with Jim Sherwin/Tony Ward and Bill McLaren/Brian Moore on commentary duties.
I think that is my favourite ever Ireland rugby game, and perhaps my favourite ever Ireland try by Keith Wood. The old stadium was rocking that day. It saw some amount of action in those last four months of 2001. That day was a unique example of a crucial Ireland rugby game having the fabled September air of All-Ireland finals (cc: of @peddlerscross), even though the game was played on October 20th. Dublin was a great place to be that day and night. The air of optimism and positivity throughout the country at this point was overwhelming.
Independent decision there
England v Ireland in 2002. An early sporting memory of mine. Remember listening to it on the radio on a car journey. They beat us by about 40. We’d denied them a grand slam in the autumn of 2001 in the game where ROG had to come straight on and kick a pen.
Fairly sure France v Ireland wasn’t televised on RTÉ that year too. They had an AIL match on instead and relayed the score. We were hammered that day too in Paris.
I was at that game. We had beaten them the previous two years and started with an early try. Then they just bate the shit out of us.
Was on a corpo junket through the brother, got absolutely hammered on free wine. Good times
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England exacted brutal revenge in 2002 for what had happened at Lansdowne Road a few months earlier. Fast Eddie was in charge by now after Gatty had been brutally sacked after Ireland lost 29-40 to New Zealand having been something like 21-7 up.
Ireland could not deal with Jonny Wilkinson’s restarts. He floated them up beautifully, they hung there for an eternity, and as the ball came down the marauding English Yeomen trampled all over the hapless Irish like the cattle trampling all over Sean Bean at the the end of The Field.
France v Ireland was televised live. I think your memory is understandably playing tricks on you because France, who were playing to win the Grand Slam, completely thrashed us from the first whistle and about 90% of viewers would have switched off after 10 minutes, because it was a beautiful spring Saturday (April 6th), the Grand National was on and there was no need to ruin such a beautiful day by watching the sacrificial Irish lambs be slaughtered.
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Scotland will run the legs off the French now
France’s mettle being sternly tested
Russell trying to play hero-ball isn’t helping
Great stuff from Finn Russell.
I wonder what odds you’d get on a Scottish Grand Slam at this moment.
That’s a very harsh penalty against Scotland which should seal it for France. Very much in keeping with the one eyed refereeing all game.