World Cup Shock Ireland 2007 Winners

The Dependant 21 October 2007

Russell Smith reports from Paris

Tears rolled down the battered cheekbone of Irish captain Brian O'Driscoll as he raised the William Webb Ellis high into what was scintilatingly refreshing autumnal Parisian air last night. 40,000 travelling Irish fans broke into song and dance around Stade de France as Irish dreams finally came true. Back home and all around the world celebrations broke out. One Mayo man tied himself to the Eifel Tower with a huge tricolour with the words ‘Belmullet Says Yes’. Irish fly half, Ronan O’Gara, also said ‘yes’ the moment his boot struck with precision an injury time corner kick for ‘Shaggy Horgan‘ to just reach and palm flick it towards the oncoming Geordan Murphy as he sprinted over the line for a magical move that would have graced any All Ireland final as well as clinching a sensational world rugby cup final. more.................................

Well it may not have happened but at least we have our dreams! And no one can take those away from us. Great Irish World Cup Wins in 2003, 1999 as well as thrashing the All Blacks on more than one occasion make great reading........read the T-Shirt!

These articles started several years ago as a bit of fun and raised money for kids' rugby primarily, in London Irish Amateur Rugby Club, where I played (for 20 years) and coached (for 8 years) after leaving Dublin. Based upon a minute fragment of truth, the articles inevitably come to the same conclusion that Irish rugby is truly great (and it is also great fun). With a small playing population we take on the big nations and beat them with passionate, physical and highly skilful, heroic performances. We sometimes add a little bit to the articles but we also carry the facts regarding some magnificent Irish performances. And we print the articles on T-Shirts.

Every year the T-shirts raise some funds for London Irish Amateur RFC mini rugby and, this year, we are allocating 75% of the profits from the real T-shirts as well as 100% of the profits from the virtual T-shirt (used in The Blarney Stone Pub in virtual Dublin in Second Life) to go to the IRFU's charitable trust to help injured players. As the IRFU site says: 'Rugby is a contact game and injuries are a reality. Over the years there have been a number of players seriously injured involving various forms of paralysis. We now have 30 seriously injured players or, as former Irish International Mick Quinn said, “thirty young men who walked out with their kit bags to play in a rugby match and came home in a wheelchair”. So your support is welcome. My thanks to Gary Leyden and his team at V Ltd for his help with the virtual shirt and the transactional facility.

Download a high resolution pdf (2.2MB) of the articles and t-shirt information (which allows you to zoom in and read the articles) or a low resolution pdf (350kb) version and pass it on to a friend or just send them a url link to this page.

Click images for larger version

To order your real Tshirt, email me stating how many Tshirts you want @£10 each (+ P&P £2) . Only size left now is white XL (all the greens are sold out).

To order your virtual Tshirt after Tuesday 19 Sep click http://slurl.com/secondlife/Dublin/81/79/25/ to go to the Blarney Stone virtual Pub in Virtual Dublin in Second Life where we have an unlimited supply and a slightly bigger selection.

You can also email me to request a useful file about 'Building Your Business In Second Life'.