A call to go to Murrayfield had to be turned down

The opportunity was there for me to go to Murrayfield on Sunday. A ticket for Ireland’s 6 Nations set-to with Scotland was available – all that was required was for me to say, yes, I’m going.

However, my usual weekend schedule, even though it didn’t include a Louth National League match, couldn’t accommodate a trip to Edinburgh.

Being present at a rugby International wouldn’t be new to me. I was at several when Ireland were regulars at Croke Park, and before that, for a game with France at the old Lansdowne Road.

I regretted not being there on Sunday for two reasons. One, it was a terrific win for Ireland, and as at most rugby Internationals, the game was played in a great atmosphere.

Two, being high up in a stand, or looking across the field at the teams’ backs as the band struck up before the match, wouldn’t have had me cringing – a view of the Ireland players, almost to a man, given ‘Ireland’s Call’ the full Jemmy Rafferty wouldn’t have been in my view. But it was all there on the telly.

Even if they wanted to – and it’s most unlikely that they would – players wouldn’t have given Amhránn na bhFiann the same treatment.

The National Anthem is not played any more at away games; and, anyway, when it was at the England match, it only got what you could say was lip service from most of the team.

James Ryan either doesn’t have a note in his head, or maybe he, too, isn’t enamoured with the pre-match musical arrangements. The big man was content to chew gum.

Wouldn’t it have been something else if the home team had come out with ‘Donald where’s you Trousers’ instead of the ‘The Flower of Scotland’?

Was my day ruined? Not at all. Simon Easterby’s team were in green jerseys, and that’s always good enough for me.

Not being well versed in rugby’s rules, I’m happy when it’s blood and thunder stuff and there are lots of scores. This game had everything in the mix, and most important, an Ireland win.

If Dan Prendergast came up to us in the Gaels looking to play on our under-18s, one thing we’d feel wasn’t necessary, and that’s ask for a look at his birth cert. We’d take him at his word.

Boyish looks and made to look small when standing shoulder to shoulder (oops!) with some of his colleagues, maybe. But this lad can play a bit.

And as he showed in this game, there’s more in his locker than striking a dead ball. That long-distance pass he delivered to set up Nash for the first try was inch-perfect.

Next up for the league leaders is an away tie with Wales. We’ll hear the same from our team before the tip-off, but some consolation will come when the Principality reverberates to ‘Land of our Fathers’, or, as Bren, Nessa, Dave and the other Barry Island denizens in Gavin & Stacey might put it, Hen Wiad Fy Ndadau.