After a couple of days of glow-basking and twitter gloating, Irish rugby fans suffered a blow last night with the news that their least favourite rugby writer scooped an award.
Stephen Jones won the UK Rugby Writer of the Year award at the Sports Journalists Association awards. And it is by no means his first award. In 1993, he won the Williams Hill Sports Book of the Year for his book 'Endless Winter: Inside Story of the Rugby Revolution'. Indeed, he reminded one of his Irish 'fans' on twitter recently that he had won no fewer than 17 awards for journalism.
The prize comes after he had spent the last couple of days jousting with Irish twitter users following the publication of his team of the tournament on Sunday which included twice as many Italians as Irish players - a classic piece of Jonesian Irish baiting.
While it is true that team of the year selections are there to honour individuals rather than teams and that there should be no obligation to load such teams with representatives of the champions, it is also true that Jones loves to push Irish buttons.
Back in 2002, he described Ireland as 'the smuggest rugby country' following their 52-10 win over Graham Henry's Wales. He said Ireland had failed to produce a truly great player in 150 years of rugby. In 2009, he excluded Brian O'Driscoll from his putative Lions team in favour of Tom Shanklin and Gavin Henson.
But one salient fact remains. Irish rugby fans continue to read him.
Maybe it's time to admit the truth here. We all secretly love Stephen Jones' jabs at Ireland. The only thing worse than Stephen Jones taking pot-shots at our rugby team is Stephen Jones praising our rugby team.
So let us offer him our warmest congratulations on the award.
Incidentally, approximately 99.9% of Irish rugby supporters will be unable to congratulate him personally on the award as they have been blocked by the man himself (in the twenty-first century, being blocked on twitter by Jones is the ultimate badge of honour for an Irish rugby supporter).
See also: 13 Steps To Becoming A More Authentic Irish Sports Fan In 2015
