Adair runs riot for Ireland

ROSS Adair, acknowledged in this column last week as the first ex-rugby professional to play international cricket, rose so magnificently to the occasion that his 58-ball century laid the foundations of Ireland‘s ten-run, T-20 win over South Africa.

Adair’s heroics make no difference to the fact that, post-war, only two rugby internationals have made centuries in Test cricket. Martin Donnelly was the first, 206 for New Zealand at Lord’s in 1949 two years after the Kiwi, then at Oxford University, made his first and last appearance in Test rugby, for England against Ireland.

The second, MJK (Mike) Smith compiled his maiden Test hundred against India at Old Trafford in 1959, three years after his one appearance for England, a thumping 22-0 home defeat by Ireland which left him free to concentrate on his cricket.