Rugby matches between Wales and Ireland go back a long way. Before what we would recognise as a modern scoring system, for instance.
When the countries met for the first time on January 28, 1882, tries did not count unless they were converted. The game was won by goals scored from the boot — conversions following a try, drop goals or a goal from mark, which occurred when a player took a clean catch, shouted ‘mark’ and was then given a free kick.
Wales beat Ireland 2-0 that day. Later in the competition, Scotland and England would draw 0-0, with Scotland awarded the match having scored two unconverted tries. Had England scored one drop goal, Scotland’s tries would have been irrelevant.
Wales and Ireland are under increasing pressure to change shirts over colour blindness
Times change, although there are still some constants. Back then, Wales played in red and Ireland in green. It has been that way in pretty much all of their 132 meetings.
For how much longer, who can say? Wales and Ireland are coming under increasing pressure to change shirts over colour blindness. Red and green can look the same to a person with colour vision deficiency.
World Rugby are working towards guidelines on this, driven by Sir Bill Beaumont, their chairman, who is colour blind and was so debilitated by the condition he only got to captain England and the British and Irish Lions 31 times. Still, it makes one wonder how Wales and Ireland got by in their encounters across 140 years.
Equally perplexing is the number of football matches now being stopped due to a medical emergency in the crowd. Is this a purely modern phenomenon, or was random illness always more likely to occur in gatherings of tens of thousands of people?
Source : dailymail
