One hell of a Moral Victory

I am about to leave Auckland today but I can't understand why I am choosing to do so.  Australia are squaring off against Ireland at Eden Park in this years edition of The Rugby World Cup and the airport is awash with gold and green jerseys.

All this excitement that I am experiencing at the airport has brought back those memories all those years ago when we very nearly toppled the mighty Wallabies.

A dogged display from us Irish and a superb kicking performance from Ralph Keyes kept us in touch with The Aussies for the entire game (Keyes would go on to finish top points scorer for the tournament).

Gordon Hamilton scores the try

With minutes remaining Jim Staples got a kick away as he was tackled, somehow the ball ended up with Gordon Hamilton who raced for the line and scored the try to put us in the lead.  Surely we were on our way to a semi final meeting with the mighty All Blacks.

Australia didn't panick and with time almost up Michael Lynagh scored the try to break each and every heart on our tiny island.  A sad way to lose after taking the lead so late in the game, maybe tonights game will be different??