TV View: The life of a globetrotting, television rugby commentator is glamorous to be sure. Well, maybe not entirely; and certainly not if your place of work is the ancient gantry peculiar to Lansdowne Road.

As if to rub salt into wounds, RTÉ's rugby commentator Ryle Nugent, wrapped in the sort of attire more accustomed to Johnny Fortycoats or an Arctic explorer, and with his sheepskin gloves holding onto his microphone for dear life, was introduced to us for yesterday's offering from the old ground in D4 only after we'd been suitably entertained by the pre-match predictions of splendidly dressed men in suits who seemed to have walked in to studio straight from Louis Copeland's.

"You would not put the cat out in it, it's vile out there," Nugent informed us of the mini-hurricane that was hitting the ground just in time for the latest instalment of the Ireland-Australia sporting rivalry, with which Ralph Keyes, his fellow-explorer high in the soon-to-be-demolished stand, concurred and must have wondered why Tom and George and Brent and Conor had it so easy in their nice, plush studio just a short distance away.

For heaven's sake, Hookie had even brought in a bottle of champagne for the occasion.

"If," as Tom McGurk told us, "Ireland beat Australia."

The sudden presentation of the bottle of champagne on the studio table came courtesy of George Hook, although, perhaps not wishing to upset Ryle and Ralph who weren't going to get any, the, ahem, cheapskate, did mention he had managed to get it half-price.

And, of course, the bottle would only be cracked open if Ireland did manage to win the match.

So, did the pundits think that Eddie O'Sullivan's men would do the job?

In a healthy reflection of how far they felt Ireland had come as a rugby nation, or maybe it was just because the attraction of opening the bubbly was too great a temptation, all three - Hook, Brent Pope and Conor O'Shea - all predicted an Irish win.

But Tom had hidden the bottle and told them they'd have to wait 'til after the match.

"Very, very close . . . (but) an Ireland win," predicted O'Shea.

"Ireland have to win," said Pope, predicting that Ireland would starve the Aussies of the ball.

"On a dry day, I think Australia might have nicked it but, given the weather conditions and they have the best bad weather flyhalf in the world, Carter included, Ireland will just about do it."

The preamble to the game had included some bickering between the pundits with Tom McGurk stirring the pot with all the enthusiasm of a wine producer stomping on prized grapes.

When Hook told us that "last week, we said we wouldn't change the team," O'Shea interjected to correct him.

"You said that," said O'Shea. And another time when McGurk put it to Hook that he had said Pope was wrong, Hook replied: "I didn't say he was wrong, I said I disagreed."

And when all three analysts sought good-naturedly to make their points at once, McGurk, the schoolteacher, pleaded, "now be quiet class, calm down".

There were no such pleadings at half-time as the analysts drooled over what O'Shea enthused was "the best 40 minutes I've ever seen from an Ireland side. Unbelievable".

It was a time to overload on the course served by the Irish team, who had played against the storm.

As Pope put it, "this is a world class performance" from a team that he reckoned could only be matched or surpassed by the All Blacks.

If the half-time superlatives were well deserved for the Ireland team, the champagne stayed under wraps until after the match and after the on-air talking.

It was, as McGurk told us after the final whistle, the first time since Brisbane in 1979 and the kicking achievements of a certain Oliver Campbell that day that Ireland had beaten the Aussies by 15 points.

The difference then and now? "A real sense in the stadium," said McGurk, "that this is the finest Irish side we have ever seen".

O'Shea felt that the reaction of the Ireland team en masse spoke volumes, that this team expected to win and that, game over, job done, the focus had switched to the next hurdle.

As Pope put it, "it is a reflection how far Irish rugby has come that the crowd and everyone aren't jumping and whooping for joy . . . . It was a magnificent performance".

Lest anyone was inclined to jump and whoop for joy, Hook wondered what coach O'Sullivan had learned from beating the Aussies in a game that the match commentator at one juncture likened to playing rugby in a swimming pool.

Hook felt that Isaac Boss's performance had given Eddie a real option (to Peter Stringer) at scrumhalf.

And that Denis Hickie was back to his best on the wing.

However, Bryan Young was not the answer to Ireland's scrimmaging problems, emphasised, as Hook put it, by a performance against "what is recognised as what is one of the worse international scrums in the world, we can't do very well. We're searching for a prop forward again".

We never did find out if the champers was enjoyed with caviar; or whether Ryle and Ralph got invited to the post-match gathering.

But given that all three pundits predicted correctly that Ireland would win, we assume the bubbly was uncorked as some stage.