For an event whose attendant publicity had laboured metaphors of marriage and coming together, the very first international rules Test turned out to require a different set of vows altogether. This evening at Croke Park Ireland and Australia mark the 31st anniversary of that inaugural series. The international project has been through so many twists and turns, crises and attempted resolutions that it’s hard to remember when it was new and fresh and envisaged its future in the most optimistic of terms. It’s 25 years since the first manifestation of the international series petered out and slipped into an eight-year hibernation before emerging as what we have today – something subscribed to by...
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