Drapier had just put his feet up after the usual Saturday tyranny of the clinics schedule to watch the first tilt against Iran at Lansdowne Road. After a clear-cut victory he was feeling quite at peace with the world when up popped Shay Given on the screen followed by Jason McAteer and finally . . . wait for it . . . Bertie Ahern! Drapier couldn't believe his eyes. The message was clear: Bertie 2 Iran 0. Is there nowhere safe from this man?
Drapier was regaling colleagues across the parties in the members' bar about the incident on Thursday during the second leg. Most of them had seen it and we relaxed confident in the knowledge that at least he wasn't in Tehran. Then on comes TV3 evening news and who is commenting on the match outcome - the all-rounder from Drumcondra. Everyone in the company instinctively knew that this is only the beginning.
Ireland's best known and best promoted sports fan intends to ride the crest of the World Cup wave all the way to polling day. He will visit the training camp; he will comment on the injuries and the tactics; he will imply a family connection on his father's side with Mick McCarthy; he will see them off at the airport and he will offer a seat to Michael Noonan and Ruair∅ Quinn on the Government jet to the first match. Or at least that's the plan.
Political handlers, if asked in the abstract, would say it is over the top. But in the case of Bertie Ahern there is no such thing, it seems, as over-exposure. Drapier is surprised at RT╔ in particular, given the requirement for balance.
He is reminded of Kildare's recent summer in the sun when no commentary on the Lily Whites seemed possible without a contribution from the garrulous Charlie McCreevy. Yet Drapier cannot recall Meath's achievements being accompanied by homespun yarns from John Bruton. Nor was Enda Kenny invited to reminisce about his father's All-Ireland medal during Mayo's return to Croke Park.
Part of the explanation is that politics is nowadays regarded by much of the media, including sections of RT╔, as entertainment. Another part is the confusion that reigns in RT╔ about its future and about what is the correct demeanour to display towards Government.
On the one hand the slavish promotion of Government Ministers is facilitated while on the other hand the politics programme is reportedly listed for the chop. Bertie knows how not to look a gift horse in the mouth. Nor for him the brash menacing demeanour towards RT╔ of a Ray Burke.
If RT╔ wants to court him at every opportunity, that's just fine by him. Statesman at home or abroad with Charlie Bird, discussing the merits of the Manchester back four with Dunphy and Giles, or describing his love for gardening and hanging baskets to Pat Kenny - it's all grist to the mill.
His only regret, he told the House on Thursday, was that we didn't yet have a stadium worthy of our place in the world. Although hinting that the £800 million odd that it will cost will not be spent over the next couple of years, he left the impression deliberately that proceed it will.
This from the leader of a Government which had just been obliged to cut back dramatically on expenditure in the Estimates announced the same day. The reversal of engines evident in the Book of Estimates betrays fairly pessimistic assumptions in the Department of Finance about growth and unemployment next year.
Against all the advice to keep the investment in infrastructure going, the Minister's decision to cap Exchequer funded capital spending at 5 per cent hardly provides for anticipated inflation in the building industry.
Labour's Derek McDowell's charge that this amounts to a Government decision to shelve the National Development Plan is a pardonable exaggeration. Both social partners IBEC and ICTU are united in their rejection of the Minister's decision.
The CIF has weighed in with the sensible observation that, having geared for a certain level of activity, if engines are reversed it will be difficult to regain the momentum. Given the scale of the infrastructure deficit generally, that would be a pity.
Which is to say nothing about the human misery caused by the scarcity of houses debated this week on a Private Members' Motion from Fine Gael's Olivia Mitchell. It was best summed up by the Labour spokesman, Eamon Gilmore, who noted that all the affordability indicators had doubled in the lifetime of this Government - the price of houses, the level of rents, the numbers on public waiting lists and the numbers who are homeless.
Output has already fallen substantially in 2001 and to provide for increased spending of 8 per cent will scarcely provide for building inflation.
The fact that Charlie McCreevy had to add a rider that the figures might yet be altered more on Budget day than is usual, highlights the tensions between Ministers. But other Ministers will also face a pasting in the run-up to the general election.
Ministers never planned it like this. This coming Budget was intended to be the mother of all election budgets. This would be Goodtime Charlie's coup de grace before the people went to the polls.
The man who stoked the blazing fire is now struggling to keep the embers glowing.
Still the World Cup breakthrough is a help. Whether Bertie's defence can hold out we will have to wait and see.