Irish rugby fans are sick and tired of the politics, the history, the media trying to create tension where there is none, the riot police, “God Help the Queen” and the rest of it. Truth be told, you ask most Dubliners today if they’d rather be stuck on an Island with an Englishman or a Cork langer, you might be surprised at the one-sideness of the answer… and not pro-Cork.

And the scum who’ll be out protesting against foreign games in our historical ground? Watch out for the Celtic and Man U jerseys. I’d love to know how many of them have been to an All Ireland championship match.

Anyway enough of that rubbish, let’s just play rugby.

Almost everyone’s fit – we have Jonny Bandage, Drico and Stringer all back in, as well as Shaggy who came back last week. Poor ol’ Jason Robinson was a bit unlucky on Thursday but that’s life.

Today’s match should be about English 10-man rugby trying to outmuscle and tire our pack, and about Ireland’s forwards trying to provide quality ball for our world class backs to show their stuff properly for the first time in this Six Nations.

Even with Wonder Wilko back in I will still call Ireland by 8 points because we have our own metronomic kicker, despite him being a feckin’ Corkman 🙂