Team Support Down Under?

I read in the papers that the Irish rugby team are doing a pretty good job down in the Antipodes (I believe you call them) - which is to say in New Zealand and Australia. Still, close is not close enough and it is extraordinary to think that the national team has failed to do what Munster have done (i.e. beat the All Blacks). I also read that Brian O'Driscoll says he is confident of beating Australia.

"I read"! This is gas, isn't it? I'm reading about it because it's not on television. I, as an Irishman, cannot watch my national rugby team play in this series of matches on national Irish television, so instead I'm reduced to reading about their exploits. Actually, the Irish team seem to play even better when you imagine them playing, but that's by the by. The main point of the matter is a far more serious one. This is a retrograde step indeed, where, unless I agree to pay a sleazebag foreign meglomaniac for the tv rights that he has hijacked and now monpolizes, I am reduced to reading about it in the papers and hopefully tuning in to a radio station that will carry it. Like some poor fucker in the 1950's. Some progress, huh?

Well, I do hope our national team does us proud. If they do win, at least I can read about it in the papers.