February 16, 2011
By Staff Reporter
As any veteran of a Six Nations encounter will quickly tell you, there are few things to compare with the passions and rivalries unleashed on a field involving the rugby players from Ireland, France, England, Scotland, Wales, and relative newcomers Italy.
As any Irish soccer fan will also tell you, there is little to top a nail-biting World Cup or European Championship game, especially against the likes of old sporting enemies such as England.
Recently, the Gaelic Athletic Association in Ireland has been expressing the idea of somehow acknowledging the contribution of players who line out for Ireland in the compromise rules games against Australia.
The Ireland-Australia clashes have brought a new and exciting dimension to both Gaelic football and the Australian Rules code. So why not go a step further and have an international competition, say, every four years?
The fact that only a handful of nations would be able to muster a decent Gaelic or compromise rules football squad can be overcome by borrowing the format from other hard-fought international competitions such as rugby’s Heineken Cup in Europe, or the “Super Twelve” competition involving top club teams from New Zealand, South Africa and Australia.
Each country could enter a few regional teams. Under that plan it would be easy enough to pull together eight, 12 or even 16 teams or more. It’s an idea worth looking at. No man’s an island. No sport is either.