The pluck of the Irish

Rugby may be only a game to the Irish, but the All Blacks had better be on their mettle.

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16th June, 2012

There’s a lot to be said for Irish rugby. First, rugby is one of the few sports that unites the island of Ireland: Ireland the rugby team is a reflection of geography, rather than recent history. And unlike Kiwis, who can be serious to a fault when it comes to rugby, the Irish have rarely forgotten it’s only a game. After a loss to England, the confusingly named Irish fly-half Mick English offered this explanation for a costly defensive miss on his opposite number, Phil Horrocks-Taylor: “Horrocks went one way, Taylor went the other, and I tackled the bloody hyphen.” During a frantic ...

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