Getting to the last four has become an obsession. But is this the only measure of success?

This ambition is a country mile removed from the awfulness of Irish rugby as the game went from amateur to professional during the nineties. We were all over the shop, and the men behind the counter were lost and disgruntled. But by the arrival of the Six Nations in 2000, pain gave way to change. There were real signs of growth. From Eddie O’Sullivan, who kicked it off and then was deported to a limbo where he couldn’t get a decent job, to men of massive influence like Joe Schmidt and Stuart Lancaster, to David Nucifora – the first tsar of Irish rugby in the pro era – rugby here became unrecognisable from its old days.

Brendan Fanning has been involved in rugby all of his life as a player, coach and journalist. He was rugby correspondent for the Sunday Independent for almost thirty years up until 2024 and has been reporting on the game since the mid-1980s. From There to Here, the definitive account of Ireland’s transition from amateur to professional rugby, was published to critical acclaim. He also wrote Crossing the Line, the bestselling autobiography of Willie Anderson.