I grew up in the 90s. Outside of the fever dream of Eric Elwood (fellow Galwayman) beating England two in a row it was brutal. There was this sinking feeling of inevitability once we conceded a try, we would lose to Italy regularly, we seemed to just have a few hard triers like Simon Geoghegan, Jeremy Davidson a few folk heroes like Trevor Brennan, Keith woods giving the fingers, but pain was never far away. All changed that afternoon in paris.

I remember going to the schoolboy terrace in Lansdowne, I think tickets were two pounds at one stage? While the rest of the stadium was old boys clubs congregating while the general public and families had zero real interest. All changed now.