Despite the pre-match hype and post match hysteria this was never going to be Ireland's season defining match. That was two weeks ago, this was more like a sip in last chance saloon. Irelands poor form against the French and the Welsh, the return of Saint Jonny and media induced Croke Park frenzy conned the rugby public into believing that this was a meaningful match - it was never going to be that.

Ireland won, and won well thanks to the pack. They fronted up to England and then began to slowly take them apart giving the backs an excellent platform and when England were reduced to 14 men and shipped 14 points there was only ever going to be one winner.

Rory Best was outstanding in the set and loose and it was good to see Hugo get a try when he came on.

A fine win, but three games on, no meaningful game time to the replacements. Who is going to play in the World Cup when O'Gara and O'Driscoll are injured? There is nothing meaningful to play for in the remainder of the Six Nations so O'Stunted should grasp the nettle and start playing the squad, not just his chosen ones.

Despite his "exposure" in a local Sunday newspaper The Original One manages to extend his lead at the top by one point.

This is more to do with Ardmhic's poor performance than anything else. If only Mike spent as much time worrying about his predictions as he does taunting his opponents then he might do better.

An excellent week for Setanta, Pwrmoore and Cole 4 who all score full houses.

With 9 points out of a possible 12 Cole 4 is infact our leading Six Nations Predictor.

OFF TO DUBLIN IN THE GREEN

Having temporarily switched allegiance from Ulster to Ireland, the Grousebeaters painted the tractor green ,white and gold and headed down the Main Street in Ballyclare. After surveying the remains of our burnt-out vehicle, we switched to Boomshanka’s jeep and drove towards the Border.

Lunch was taken in Drogheda’s Black Bull (is this too racist? – Ed). This was notable for my slight gaffe of mistaking a freebie newspaper poster of Ireland’s freshwater fish for the menu and ordering pike and chips.

On arriving in Dublin, Boomshanka neatly double-parked in a suitable location. I was not aware that “double-parking” meant one car on top of another, but there you go.

Base was set up in Kennedy’s Bar where we finally caught on that the 4th member of the party was not actually Ballpark. Booms and I had a quick discussion about his identity – we had never seen him before. Had we left BP behind in all the fuss in Ballyclare? Had he been left in the tractor when the petrol bombs hit it? We were sure we counted everybody out, but…. Luckily it turned out that the stranger was Scrumstretcher’s son, over from England for the match. We introduced ourselves. He heard the name “Boomshanka”, turned white and fled through the door. He must be a player.

The Sunday Life turned up and we volunteered for a photo-shoot.
“Have yez any weemin with yez?”
“No” I replied
“Well feck aff then.”

Sunday Life has now joined Emerald Rugby on our list of banned publications. (Especially as it had a picture of someone looking very like Chairman Kimble and he’s not a woman.)

We found Croke Park eventually, having had a friendly debate with some very nice people carrying placards. I think they might have been from some nursing home or something. Very sad.

Our seats were beside McCall and Clarkie. We gave them some advice about new signings and they promised to have a look at young Carter from New Zealand. We warned them off a prop called Jarleth or something from the Earth Titans and they thanked us profusely for our invaluable input.

The match was excellent, with the result being in doubt until the final seconds when EOS cleverly brought on Boss and Wallace to win the game for Ireland. What would he do without the Ulstermen?

We decided to stop in Drogheda again on the way home. I awoke just in time to spot Sprucefield.

“What happened to Drogheda?” I asked.
“Be there soon.”replied Booms.

He must have fallen asleep as well.

Dewey was a quick learner and was so impressed with Kimble's dedication that he had no hesitation in putting him in touch with fellow Scot Simon Danielli. Danielli, coming near the end of his career, was keen to explore other avenues of employment and Kimble's stable of male strippers under the name "Mr Cumplay and Friends" seemed the ideal opening so to speak.

After quick tryout Danielli was on board, just in time for Kimble to announce the New Ulster kit for next year!

(Left) The Flower of Scotland tartan to feature in Kukri's Ulster Kit!