{"id":348189,"date":"2026-03-15T23:25:09","date_gmt":"2026-03-15T23:25:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/348189\/"},"modified":"2026-03-15T23:25:09","modified_gmt":"2026-03-15T23:25:09","slug":"cheering-on-england-is-a-dirty-business-but-sometimes-it-just-has-to-be-done-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/348189\/","title":{"rendered":"Cheering on England is a dirty business but sometimes it just has to be done \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Vikings, Cromwell, landlords, Eurovision Song Contest voters, and so on, to this list we now add the right boot of Thomas Ramos \u2013 inflictors of unimaginable pain on our nation. \u201cC\u2019est la vie,\u201d Stephen Ferris sighed come the conclusion of that somewhat epic battle in Paris. Ireland<\/a>, then, had to settle for the Triple Crown<\/a>. <\/p>\n

Mind you, if you regard that as a measly prize, you need to catch yourself on.<\/p>\n

BBC: \u201cIt\u2019s a win for Wales! How does that sound?\u201d<\/p>\n

Aaron Wainwright: \u201cIncredible!\u201d<\/p>\n

BBC: \u201cIt is another wooden spoon, but do you allow yourselves to celebrate tonight?\u201d<\/p>\n

Aaron: \u201cYeah.\u201d<\/p>\n

See? Wales win their first Six Nations<\/a> game since roughly 1862 and they party like they\u2019ve won the World Cup. Our lads win the Triple Crown and a fair chunk of our rugby-loving folk go \u201cmeh\u201d. <\/p>\n

Not, to be honest, that anyone held out too much hope of England doing us a favour. \u201cNo chance whatsoever,\u201d said Rob Kearney of their prospects in Paris, although Shane Horgan reckoned that because this Six Nations had, frankly, been bonkers, he wouldn\u2019t rule anything out. \u201cI don\u2019t think I could have felt more of an eejit with my predictions,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n

First, though, Ireland had their own business to attend to, Gregor Townsend\u2019s men arriving in Dublin on board cloud nine after that win over the French. <\/p>\n

\u201cWhat\u2019s your problem with Scotland,\u201d Joe Molloy asked Peter O\u2019Mahony. \u201cI don\u2019t have any … well, I\u2019m not going to say I don\u2019t have a problem with Scotland,\u201d he replied, deciding that honesty was the best policy. \u201cHe has a serious problem with Scotland,\u201d Conor Murray confirmed.<\/p>\n

Would Ireland have a problem with Scotland? The panel wasn\u2019t too sure, it largely depending on which Scotland turned up, but they were hoping they\u2019d be similar to the Scotland that lost the previous 11 encounters between the teams.<\/p>\n

They weren\u2019t. They were rather good, but not good enough to deny our crew their fourth Triple Crown in five years. Let that sink in and stop your mitherin\u2019.<\/p>\n

\"TommyTommy O\u2019Brien celebrates after scoring Ireland’s fifth try with Michael Milne. Photograph: Nick Elliott\/Inpho <\/p>\n

And perhaps as a show of support for England, the stadium DJ played Sweet Caroline to salute Ireland\u2019s triumph, which would be akin to England playing the Fields of Athenry at Twickenham. <\/p>\n

\u201cWill you be supporting England,\u201d Joe asked Josh van der Flier after Ireland\u2019s win to take the championship lead ahead of kick-off at the Stade de France. \u201cIt\u2019ll be strange, but I have to, I guess,\u201d he said, Stephen Ferris going several steps further over on RT\u00c9 by actually donning an England jersey in the studio. Simon Zebo couldn\u2019t bring himself to go that far, tossing away the shirt Jacqui Hurley chucked at him like it was a hot potato. <\/p>\n

Anthems time. A lusty rendition of God Save the King, and that was just in the livingrooms of Ireland, La Marseillaise as majestic as ever. <\/p>\n

Off we went. A French try after seven minutes. A procession towards the title? Well, if you\u2019d gone out for some fresh air and returned 20ish minutes later, you\u2019d have heard Nick Mullins on ITV declare: \u201cAs it stands, we will be crowning Ireland champions!\u201d<\/p>\n

Granted, this Six Nations has indeed been bonkers, but this was taking it to an entirely new level. France throttle Ireland, Ireland throttle England, England throttle France? True, it was a little early to be making that prediction, but when they went over for their third try, Nick was as bamboozled as ourselves. \u201cWhat is going on? Is this England we\u2019re watching? Even St George draws a breath and says \u2018goodness me\u2019.\u201d You\u2019d guess St George would have used stronger language.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhere has this England been,\u201d said Mark Pougatch at half-time, echoing Nick\u2019s discombobulation, his panel having no clue. They were equally flummoxed back on RT\u00c9, jaws resting on the floor. <\/p>\n

Second half. And it quickly turned in to something akin to one of those Sevens game where you get a try a minute. Bernard Jackman couldn\u2019t believe what he was seeing. \u201cIt\u2019s a pity this Six Nations has to end.\u201d <\/p>\n

Four minutes to go and Tommy Freeman scores England\u2019s seventh try (seventh!!), Marcus Smith converts and they\u2019re 46-45 up. By now, you\u2019d even forgive them for Cromwell. \u201cNo penalties England, no penalties,\u201d Bernard, on his seventh Novena, pleaded. And then: \u201cOh. My. God.\u201d Yes, mon Dieu, penalty to France. \u201cThis is just, this is just … I can\u2019t believe it,\u201d Hugh Cahill panted.<\/p>\n

As we speak, they are probably replacing the Arc de Triomphe with a monument to the right boot of Thomas Ramos, having awarded him the Ordre national de la L\u00e9gion d\u2019honneur for his act of bravery. <\/p>\n

\u201cEngland are in absolute bits,\u201d said Bernard. No more than ourselves. A suitably gobsmacking conclusion to a gobsmacking tournament. <\/p>\n

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Find the channel here<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Vikings, Cromwell, landlords, Eurovision Song Contest voters, and so on, to this list we now add the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":348190,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[1452,61,60,1449,15551,112],"class_list":["post-348189","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-france-rugby","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-ireland-rugby","tag-six-nations","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/348189","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=348189"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/348189\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/348190"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=348189"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=348189"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=348189"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}