"As an occasion it promised nothing of the explosive drama we witnessed here two years ago and, in no way did it ever come close to delivering it.
"There was no comparable sense of intrigue about yesterday. No novel historical context, no questions about anthems or security arrangements to heighten the tension. Nor had Ireland any call on long-standing emotional grievances to push them closer to the line. To win they had to do it the hard way. In a way they had so much more to play for and you could be kind to Ireland by suggesting that the pressure they were under diminished them aesthetically. In 2007 they'd come off the back of a heart-rending defeat against France and, on the day, the mood of the England game was unique and positively surreal. The thing about one-off sporting occasions is that they can't be recreated on demand, though. Yesterday the dynamics had altered appreciably."
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