Ireland win The Grand Slam

It’s been a while. 61 years in fact. In 1948 the world was still recovering from war when Jack Kyle masterminded Ireland’s last Grand Slam. We English football fans can begin to understand what that feels like, seeing as it’s been 43 years since we won the football World Cup. But there’s a key difference, 43 is definitely not 61. I thought they’d blown it. As we were watching the Golden Generation of Irish rugby players start to age, I honestly thought they’d missed their chance, and it could well have been another 61 years before it came around again.

But what a finish though! I defy anyone who thinks that the 6 Nations isn’t one of the world’s premier rugby tournaments outside the World Cup. You don’t get this level of excitement and suspense in the Tri-Nations thats for certain. It was a game played as Northern Hemisphere rugby should be played. Tight and tough with unrelenting physicality. No one team dominated from the off. It was as if 2 heavyweight fighters had decided to fight to the death.

This is exactly the reason why sport is so fantastic. There’s no way of knowing what’s going to happen, the tension sits on your shoulders so that by the end, you’re physically exhausted. And how fitting it was that the end came from a drop goal. I remember a couple of Irish mates goading me back in 2003. “You only won the world cup because you’ve got some guy that can drop goals”. Yes. Yes we did. But aren’t they useful? The good old drop goal.

This generation of Irish players will now go down in history, but particularly the likes of O’Driscoll, O’Connell and O’Gara. Although you could argue that the first 2 were already in the history books. I can’t think of a team more deserving of success than this one. What pleases me more is they did it against the Welsh. The Welsh seem to have gladly accepted the mantle of “the best side in the northern hemisphere” almost to the point that you’d think they’d been there since the dawn of time. There seemed to be a quiet arrogance with them this year that was notably absent last year.

All this could prove interesting in 2010, with a wounded Welsh side keen to reclaim their crown, a confident Irish, with the monkey finally off their back, and a resurgent England, steadily improving, provided they can keep all 15 players on the pitch for 80 minutes. In the immediate future though, we can look forward to the Lions tour of South Africa. About 6 months ago, I viewed this tour with as much pleasure as viewing a thunderstorm from ones front door. Now however, there are a few gaps in the cloud. This tour could be a cracker. And what’s more, we might well win. I will reserve my discussion on the Lions for a later date, but right now, let us sit back and applaud a fine and well deserved Ireland Grand Slam. And make sure you enjoy it too, you might not see another one for a while!