The Irish Times' Gerry Thornley shares Ireland team manager Paul McNaughton's memories of beating the Australia in 1979.
"Admittedly, tours weren’t as commonplace in those days, but even so Ireland have played 23 Tests against Australia, South Africa and New Zealand in the Southern Hemisphere since then and have lost the lot.
"There hasn’t even been any respite in Argentina, where Ireland also two lost Tests in 2007, as well as one in 2000, not to mention two defeats in Namibia in 1991 prior to the World Cup.
"McNaughton played in seven of the eight matches on that ’79 tour, and reckons Fergus Slattery and Mike Gibson played all eight.
“You have this impression that amateur rugby in those days was just going from one pub to another, and then the match was kind of a weekend addendum. I’ve talked to a lot of guys about this and I’ve certainly never experienced it like that, on this (1979) trip especially.”
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