The Oireachtas XV beat the Westminster XV 27 points to seven at Sunbury last Saturday - which was a better result that the A team achieved down the road at Twickenham. And it was not an uneventful match. Irish Captain, Jimmy Deenihan left the field with a black eye and the British ref sustained a broken nose. Deenihan said at the post-match lunch that he had often come off the pitch with black marks but this was the only time he was hit by one of his own players.
PD Senator, John Dardis, shared the refereeing with an English colleague, but when the Englishman was touch judge for the second half and went behind the post, the first Irish try - a drop kick - hit him full in the face, knocked him down and broke his nose. They said it wasn't a tough match but then they had been entertained the previous night at the House of Lords. After the international, the two teams gathered for drinks, pate and sausages around a Land Rover in one of the Twickenham car parks which, says Dardis, relieved the acute embarrassment of the Irish at the dismal performance. The normal banter was notably absent. "They obviously felt for us." Deenihan is now planing an outing against the French parliamentarians in Paris on March 18th.