Pale moon rose: Ireland's chaotic inaugural World Cup

Ireland has a rich history in the field of World Cup shambles but few subsequent adventures have been as chaotic as the inaugural Rugby World Cup in 1987.

From a national controversy about the hastily selected 'anthem', which lit up the letters pages for days afterwards, to the head coach winding up in hospital before the start, to the borderline inhumane travel schedule which left players wrecked for the matches, the '87 World Cup was a catalogue of mishaps and misfortune.

Of course, if the IRFU had their way initially, none of it would have happened at all and Irish rugby wouldn't still be lumbered with an infamous quarter-final hex.

When the Australia-New Zealand sponsored World Cup proposal came before the International Rugby Board in March 1985, Ireland were one of the last holdouts against it.

The idea of a World Cup had been floated before; it would have been perverse if it hadn't. The football World Cup had been going since 1930. Rugby League, a sport played seriously by three countries, had a World Cup since the mid-50s. The Cricket World Cup had begun in the mid-70s, even before the Kerry Packer-led shake-up of the sport.

In union, however, there were fears that a World Cup would hasten the march towards professionalism, which had the game's custodians permanently on their guard. The IRFU were especially hawkish on the matter.

The alickadoos had the support of many in the media, with the Irish Times rugby correspondent Edmund 'Ned' Van Esbeck describing their reasons for opposing "extremely logical and very sound."

In his article of 12 March, Van Esbeck outlined the reasons, predicting that it would "mean the end, effectively, of Lions tours" and that "the Irish are worried, and rightly, about the possible effect on