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Ireland 55 Canada 0:AS THE Eddie O'Sullivan reign began with a 54-10 drubbing of a hapless Welsh team in February 2002, so the Declan Kidney era kicked off with a fairly routine 55-0. Save for the appalling weather and the opposition wearing red, though, the similarities more or less ended there.

In keeping with recent four-year cycles, the so-called minnows of the global game, outside of World Cup time, simply cannot compete with their heavyweight brethren - even if, geographically at least, putting Canada and Ireland in those brackets seems odd. At World Cup time, the third tier nations are at least coming to the conclusion of four-year cycles themselves and usually have the same amount of time in camp.