I have been reading of and hearing the disappointment felt by the Irish rugby players over their defeat by the New Zealand All Blacks on Sunday.

As an ex player I can understand their feelings, but I want to say here and now that they have no need to hang their heads. They were magnificent to a man. They can be sure that the respective coaches of the rest of the six nations teams will be losing plenty of sleep in trying to work out how they are going to come up with a plan to beat our heroes. I have never witnessed an Irish performance, which showed such a level of commitment and determination. Nothing more could have been asked or given.

It has often been said that there has to be a winner and there has to be a loser but the losers this time were not the Irish boys whatever the scoreline says to the contrary. It will be the mighty All Blacks who will be worrying about where they went wrong and the Irish boys should be thinking about how they can build on that performance.

I say again ‘you were magnificent’. As I watched every nail-biting minute of the game, I had never felt more proud to be Irish. In those eighty odd minutes you did more to restore the morale of our country than any of our weak-kneed politicians could do in a lifetime.

I salute you.

Yours sincerely,

Kevin Wilcox,

Ballylegan,

Glanworth.