Rugby wasn't the main reason for Easley's visit, however.

The governor of North Carolina travelled to Ireland last week to talk about foreign direct investment (FDI) with leaders of the biotechnology sector. But not to be sweettalked by the IDA into funding a project here.

He came to get Irish companies, and multinational pharmaceutical and life sciences firms to create jobs in his home state.

It's a striking role reversal in many ways; and perhaps the ultimate compliment to the country's international reputation. North Carolina's equivalent of the IDA had a look at the 170 biotech firms here employing 35,000 people and reckoned that perhaps some of those jobs could move to the Tar Heel State.

Easley told the Sunday Tribune that he sees opportunities for Ireland and North Carolina to complement each other rather than compete for future FDI from the big multinationals like Glaxo SmithKline.

"We're here to remind them that if they have expansion needs, we're there for them.

"We know they have a lot of opportunity for expansion in Ireland as well. Spending some time with them is particularly important. The more we understand how the company operates internationally, the more we can share with Ireland. We spent an awful lot of time with Enterprise Ireland trying to collaborate. They're expanding so rapidly, there's plenty of business to go around."

Jim Fain, the state's secretary of commerce, said that the state has watched developments here with interest.

It's not exactly as if North Carolina is starting from a low level. The state is ranked third in the US for biotech, with 350 companies in the sector accounting for 46,000 jobs.

"I'm kind of running the sales department for the state, if you will, " Fain chuckles.

"We're very aware of Ireland's success in biopharma, biotech, etc. There have been frequent exchanges at the university level, " he adds, referring to his state's famous 'Research Triangle', "but as a competitor, you have a very attractive tax situation, clearly."

Is it an unfair advantage?

"Well, our problem is so different, it's really comparing apples and oranges, " says Easley. "Our state corporate tax rate is 6.8%, with federal tax [around 35%]. But there are a series of deductions."

Fain explains that the state has specific incentives that compare favourably with its neighbours. It puts its counties into three tiers of average income and unemployment, and calculates a tax credit per job created on a sliding scale.

Each job in the least prosperous counties gets a tax credit of $12,500 scaling down to $500 per job in counties that are already booming. There are additional incentives for machine and equipment purchases.

Fain pointed to recent investments by Credit Suisse, GlaxoSmith Kline and Dell, creating in total more than 3,000 jobs.

It's certainly a more complicated sell compared with the simplicity of Ireland's model, however. Multinationals are never subtle in citing Ireland's 12.5% corporate tax rate as a reason to invest . . . and funnel the revenues from their European operations through . . . here. That 4% of Google's profits were taxed at the Irish rate meant that in its recent quarterly results, the company reduced its effective tax rate to 27%, for example.

Easley was interested in what he saw on his visit. "You have a heck of a lot of impressive facilities. But it's the workforce . . . a real commitment to training and quality . . . that really gives you an advantage."

The impression that the education levels of Ireland's workforce provide a competitive advantage might be disputed by managers within certain sectors of Ibec, however, who worry about falling quality among recent Irish graduates, but it's a global issue, says Easley.

"The real key is the workforce. To prepare such a large workforce so quickly . . . so rapidly . . . that's the key. Skilled jobs are the way of the future for European countries. Lowskill jobs are moving offshore on both sides of the Atlantic."