HAD bonus points been in operation ten years ago, Ireland would have been spared the cruel fate of losing the Six Nations title to a man called Elvis, as in Vermeulen, the Clermont No.8. And it all happened on St Patrick’s Day.
Instead of being on the wrong side of a photofinish with France, Eddie O’Sullivan’s team would have been declared champions by virtue of a single losing bonus point – against France in Dublin.
Had it counted, Elvis’ try, in the last minute of the last match, for France against Scotland in Paris, would not have mattered. Ireland’s w...