For those who were there it was doubtless a great occasion but for the likely near million people watching at home there was the added bonus of RTÉ Sport’s farewell montage covering over 50 years of Six Nations coverage that on Saturday came to an end.
From next season the Championship will be shown on TV3. So too was the Rugby World Cup of 2015 and the audience of rugby fans will continue to watch but it was a moment of history passing and was as ever reflected with the right mix of sentimentality and fond memory by the production team at Montrose.
The end of the game was tense enough to hold thoughts of anything but the moment in check. Joe Schmidt would have been proud of that ‘in the moment’ focus from Ryle Nugent behind the microphone. It was also a good way to go out and who knows once the contract comes up for renewal again in future it may return but in a world of old vs new broadcasters, state versus strictly commercial that tends to be one way traffic.
So lets allow ourselves to wallow in the history one more time and enjoy the moments, each of which will be of different significance for all of us, but all of which are important points along the road of our relationship with sport.
