Frank McNally: Not a cloud in sky for Ireland rugby fans

Irish fans arriving early for the Edinburgh rugby weekend were treated to almost perfect views of the solar eclipse, as light cloud cleared obligingly at just the right times.

Whether they will witness an even rarer phenomenon while here – Ireland winning back-to-back Six Nations titles – is another matter. Even if we beat Scotland, and by a handsome margin, the full significance of the result may be shrouded for up to two hours afterwards.

The only thing clear in the meantime is that heavenly bodies have aligned perfectly for TV schedulers: providing a day-long finale in Rome, Edinburgh, and London, where the winners of any of the three games could be champions.

Elsewhere on television, BBC Scotland has been flagging a documentary for next week called After Bannockburn. It's about this year's 700th anniversary of an alliance between Robert the Bruce and the Irish, aimed at thwarting English dominance.

Successive titles

Maybe they should show it in the home dressing-room. But the Scottish rugby team doesn’t tend to do Ireland any favours, even to spite

England

. So if the boys in green are to land successive titles for the first time since 1948/49, they’ll probably have to do it on their own.

The good news is that the weather looks like being good for running rugby, with sunny spells and gentle breezes. The other good news is that the local fans, at least, seem resigned to defeat.

Typical of the fatalism were Angus and Cath McDonald, who were strolling around Edinburgh in the post-eclipse sunshine. Resplendent in blue and purple tartans, they could have won a highland fancy dress competition except for Angus’s sole sartorial blemish: a pair of lurid green, shamrock socks.

It was his habit, he explained, always to wear socks in honour of the opposition. He was a die-hard Scotland fan, nevertheless. And yet the most he could hope for today was that it would be an enjoyable game. As for the result, “I can’t see us living with Ireland at all.”

Beachhead

That was also the view of a group of Irish fans from Belfast, who having arrived on Thursday, had already established a beachhead at Biddy Mulligan’s pub in the city’s Grassmarket area. In fact, the match was only a secondary consideration for them. They were here for the stag party of one Peter McGarrity, who was currently asleep.

But they were going to the game too. And while they had no fear of Scotland causing an upset – “not a chance” said Darren O’Neill – they also believed Ireland wouldn’t win by enough. It was England’s title to lose, thought David Lynch: “They have a big advantage playing last.”

Ireland may need a rub of the green, and in Edinburgh that has a particular meaning. One of the city's more popular sculptures is a brass likeness of the 18th-century philosopher David Hume, dressed in classical robes and barefoot.

Hume was a big influence on logical positivism, among other strains of rational thought. So it might be a cause of despair to him that many people today think they can ensure happiness by rubbing his right big toe. Which, shined back to its original brassy colour, is now the only part of him not green.

The philosopher's digit was being rubbed lovingly by rugby fans from both sides on Friday, while nearby a lone bagpiper played a reel. The reel was called Itchy Fingers, and might well have been dedicated to the Irish wingers, especially Luke Fitzgerald, who will be making his long-awaited international comeback and will be hoping for the odd pass.

As for the piper’s follow-up, Scotland can keep that. It was an unidentified lament.