Sweet memories of an age when the grand slam was called a clean sweep

Jack Kyle was one of the stars of the Ireland team of 1948: (pic Paul Faith/PA)
It’s the year that still defines Irish rugby, a date repeated so frequently in the last month and so urgently in the last week that it seems to have raced from history into the present. 1948, when Ireland last won the grand slam.

What betrays the gap between then and now is the slight tremor in the voices of those that can say that they were working parts of the legend. Jim McCarthy, despite a stroke two months ago, and Jack Kyle, despite treatment for bone marrow cancer last year, are still sharp as a tack.

In 1948 the phrase “grand slam” had not been invented. The Triple Crown, last won by Ireland in 1899, exercised their minds far more than the clean sweep of four. The France game preceded the others, played traditionally on New Year’s Day, which fell on a Thursday in ’48. For Kyle at outside- half, the journey from Belfast to Dublin, Holyhead, London, Dover, Calais and Paris in reality consumed two days. And a trip to the Folies Bergère the night before the game ate into a few more hours…….. see more at :- http://www.theguardian.com/sport/2009/mar/20/ireland-grand-slam-1948-six-nations