Masses give curious spectacle the thumbs-up

International Rules First Test: Keith Duggan finds it difficult to warm to the contrived spectacle of International Rules, despite its popularity

A night that ended in high drama began in a mood that belonged to the days when Fossett's Big Top regularly pulled in the crowds at Salthill. Pearse Stadium is a much better-looking place at night and by the time the hurling exhibition was over, the full house was giddy in anticipation of an evening of rollicking entertainment.

When the teams took to the field, looking resplendent under the bright lights, the scene included the sound of the Artane Boys Band jazzing up the mood, an entire school of streakers and the appearance of a scamp of a young dog, out for a bit of Saturday night mischief. You had to wonder why the organisers didn't just go the whole hog and bring on the clowns, exploding cars and trapeze artists.

For the abiding sense of the International Rules is of a fun-filled if contrived spectacle bolted to some undeniably entertaining moments of athletic skill and bravery. But because this thing comes out of its box every year - because it actually exists for only two weeks a year and is played by no more than 80 people on the planet - it is hard to see it ever acquiring a real depth of significance.

Which is not to say that the players involved don't care about it: clearly, they do. But competitors are competitors: you can care about a five-a-side kickabout with nobody watching. Throw in 30,000 folks in carnival mood, the patriotic fervour of the anthems and the promise of a wintertime trip every other year and the whole thing has a glossiness and appeal that, for all the endeavour and skill, does not seem quite real or fully merited.

The energetic and brilliantly constructed winning drive by the Irish seemed so perfectly plotted that it will completely eclipse the memory of a fairly hapless first quarter when the Australians were clearly struggling to get to grips with handling the round football and committing some appalling kicking errors, mistakes and inadequacies that simply did no justice to what are superb practitioners of their own sport.

It is this blatant unease with which many of the Australians handle the football that makes dubious the argument that the Australian and Irish games are very similar. They involve footballs of completely different shape and hence require completely separate approaches in terms of kicking, catching, judgment of the bounce, passing, everything.

As Irish Gaelic players like Brian Stynes, Tadhg Kennelly, Setanta Ó hAilpín and the Laois-Brisbane man Colm Begley - so impressive on Saturday night - have shown, the Australian game can be learned and the basic concepts of catch, kick and move seem to make (a few) Irish players ideally suited to the sport.

And equally, the Australians always manage to find several players who have that play-anything capability, the intuition and skill and aptitude to adapt to the Irish game so that they can look like the stand-out performers on the field. Barry Hall, the towering Sydney man, was the inspirational source for Australia on Saturday night, a huge ball-winner with a clever reading of the game.

But for all the composure of Ireland's Kieran McGeeney, Steven McDonnell, Seán Marty Lockhart and Australia's Ryan O'Keefe, Nick Davis and Dustin Fletcher, there were plenty of errors. And the wholehearted commitment and speed from players on both sides struggling to adapt meant full-on collisions were unavoidable.

And such contact was also gratuitous. It is no secret that part of the attraction of International Rules lies in the wham-bam-wallop of the tackles, loose-ball hits and late hits. There were plenty of outbreaks of minor violence on Saturday night, but one of the most dangerous was a late frontal charge on McGeeney- possibly by Danyle Pearce - when the Irish captain had just kicked a clearance and was unprotected.

Minutes later, Nick Davis spent a few minutes tussling with McGeeney, who had hitherto been the outstanding home performer, and it was no coincidence that the Armagh man, momentarily fazed, "lost" Davis in the sweeping handpass movement that led to Australia's only goal.

McGeeney recovered to deliver arguably the most complete and shockingly fair and hard tackle in the history of this game, stopping Campbell Brown stone dead with a shoulder that seemed to repel the whole Australian team, giving Ireland a momentum that would culminate in the late burst of scores from McDonnell and Joe Bergin.

The mood afterwards was delirious and good-natured and as the crowd, mostly young and party-bound, filled the damp neon streets in Salthill, it was clear, whether you love it or hate it, International Rules has never been so popular.