The recent meeting of Leinster and Munster – each at full-strength, for once – so close to Ireland’s championship opener, along with the variety of selection sub-plots in Limerick, evoked for many of a certain vintage the era when there truly was a final trial.
Few recall these as halcyon days. They ruined Christmas. They heightened the pomposity of those selecting the team rather than those who coached it. The matches were predominantly dour affairs. And after all the fuss, the IRFU remained so historically blinkered that they rarely influenced selection.
Their affected arrogance was such that they didn’t even advertise the matches as ‘possibles’ versus ‘probables’ but rather ‘whites’ versus ‘blues’.