Irish look to blessing from Pope

Ireland, whose failure to win a Triple Crown since 1985 underlines their perennial fallibility on the rugby front, will carry a Papal blessing with them into the Six Nations.

Keith Wood and his squad have been granted an audience with the Pope in the Vatican at 9.30 next Wednesday morning before tackling Italy in Rome, a neat piece of one-upmanship on their rivals who will regard the resurgent Irish as dangerous enough without the help of divine inspiration.

Clearly, Scotland could have done with something similar when they lost to the Italians in the opening match last year.

The last time an Irish team met the Pontiff, during the 1990 World Soccer Cup when the Pope famously referred to Jack Charlton as 'the boss,' they reached the quarter-finals before losing to hosts Italy.

The party for the papal visit will include a number of Protestants from Northern Ireland due to be named today for the Italian trip, among them Ulster fly half David Humphreys and the Lions lock Jeremy Davidson from Belfast.

Davidson, who plays his rugby in France with Castres, said: 'It is a great honour for the players and fitting that it should happen on Ireland's first Six Nations visit to Rome. It's not every day you get the chance to meet the Pope.'