Ireland made some big strides in the world rankings today. Up to 62nd. Take that Rwandans. It has been tough putting up with their crowing for the last while.
How different it all was 22 years ago.
In 1993, Ireland reached no.6 in the world rankings. Sixth! This was a full five spots ahead of England. Rarely can Ireland's stock have been any higher than it was in March 1993.
Paul McGrath had just picked up the PFA Player of the Year award a few days earlier as Villa (who had a hell of a lot of Irish players) chased for the title, Niall Quinn was a surprisingly prolific goalscorer with Man City (he was a 17-19 goal a season man from 1991-93) and Roy Keane was to be the subject of a bidding war between Blackburn Rovers and Manchester United within a couple of months.
The days of Northern Ireland competing in the World Cup were not that far gone in 1993. But their decline had already begun.
During the game, the Lansdowne Road crowd struck up a rendition of 'One team in Ireland, there's only one team in Ireland, one team in Irelaaaaand, there's only one team in Irelaand.'
The chant stung Billy like hell and when he was accused of inciting the Windsor Park crowd on that vicious night that November, he asserted that was merely geeing up the crowd with a view to generating the same atmosphere that prevailed in Dublin that March.
Here's a video of ITV's coverage of the game which show the goals from a better angle...
