IHAD played a game for London Irish years ago and the seisiun afterwards was directly out of the last days of the Roman Empire. I was poured onto the tube on the Piccadilly line near Heathrow. I crashed out, fell asleep under the seat and ended up in Cockfosters . . .

miles away from anywhere. It was the last train of the night and when it reached it's destination they parked it in a siding in the garage. I spent the night in Cockfosters garage.

The Sunday tube service started again at about 6.30am. It was still dark and a little man from Pakistan was walking through the carriages on his way to the driver's cab. There was a vast reservoir of technicolour yawnage on the floor and the poor fella skidded. Both feet went straight into the air and he landed flat on his back . . .

our faces six inches from each other.

"Hoyez going horse, " I inclined. It was a bad way to start his morning. He returned five minutes later with his mates and threw me out of the station. It was freezing, I'd no money and I felt like I was wearing a balaclava on the inside of my head. I hailed a taxi and got home for about 90 quid. Stupidly I claimed for the expense, got queried and confessed. The story was out in minutes and I was called Cockfosters and worse for months afterwards.

I enjoyed my stay at London Irish. Great crew, craic and the rugby was good too.

Good to see them playing at Donnybrook the other week.

Good also to see their coach Brian Smith. I hadn't seen him since 1991 . . . 15 years. An exceptionally nice fella, good company and talented in a lot of ways. The Dutch fella vilified him in The Irish Times when he left to go and play league in Australia before the World Cup . . . storm in a tea cup.

Smith's elevation to Director of Rugby at London Irish was circuitous . . . but you sense that this was the way it was meant to be. Vocation answered.

Smith was happy working for Singletons Advertising in Sydney. He ended up coaching Eastern Suburbs . . .

they skimmed everyone in the league. It didn't go unnoticed and the Brumbies put in a call. He became part of their coaching staff until Bath made him an offer.

When you are bright and ambitious, with your own ideas, second lieutenant doesn't really cut it. London Irish made an audacious bid.

He could be the big daddy, run the whole show. Anybody who saw London Irish play last season couldn't but be impressed. It ain't the jump in the standings . . . 10th to third . . . it's the type of game they play. Why do people watch Brazil? Because they want to be entertained. Winning is good but if the entertainment quotient is high, then you have a product that you can sell. Irish were the top try scorers in the league and the best supported club.

Nice alchemy.

A good coaching mix too . . .

attention to detail but genuine innovation in how they play . . . it isn't a mistake that they have real pace 11 through to 15. The Australian has a fatalistic outlook . . . at some stage it won't work but best to go out playing a sexy brand.

It was encouraging to note also that they play with a fair degree of street wisdom, which stops just short of cynical. An absolute necessity.

The second season will tell a lot. I'd have a fair degree of confidence. If Smith can sustain this level of achievement, you would never know where it could bring him.

Fast Eddie's contract is up after the 2007 World Cup . . .

who is to say that Brian Smith wouldn't be good enough to take that job on. If Irish supporters wanted to see some sexy rugby and a coach who would get the best out of Brian O'Driscoll then why not welcome the prodigal son back. Everyone would be happy with that move . . . well everyone except Fast Eddie, the Dutch fella, some members of the IRFU and the Fatted Calf!

It is important for the IRFU and O'Sullivan to rekindle a good relationship with London Irish. Currently it is at Cold War levels . . . a rapprochement should be initiated sooner rather than later.

I love watching the National Geographic channel.

Nature in the wild is always fascinating. Lions and hyenas hate each other and whenever they can, each breed will kill the other's unprotected cubs. They don't do it for food; they do it so that their off-spring won't have to battle with their opponents' off-spring for feeding and territory rights.

England are currently doing this to us. London Irish have over the last few years produced three players . . .

Declan Danagher, Nick Kennedy and Kieran Roche . . .

good enough to play for Ireland or Ireland A, all of them more Irish than some of the Kiwis who have been capped by Ireland. Yet the RFU are let just walk in, cap these players at A or sevens level and then throw them on the scrap heap, not because they are not good enough, but because they don't want Ireland to be able to use them . . .

lions and hyenas.

I went to watch London Irish play and see which Irish qualified player stood out.

Apart from Danny Casey, Shane Geraghty caught the eye . . . he played in the centre but out-half is his position.

He has been selected for the English Academy and Brian Ashton has really taken a shine. The kid is only 20, he has been picked for the England sevens squad which plays in Dubai on the 30th of November . . . after that he is an English player. If I was Eddie O'Sullivan and I saw what was coming up behind Ronan O'Gara I would try and get a deal done straight away. Hard to gauge from a training match, but Smith rates him highly . . . very highly.

Time maybe for O'Sullivan or his management team to spend a bit more time with London Irish rather than going to London to just watch Wasps and hang with McGeechan. Sure, watch Jeremy Staunton, Eoin Reddan and Johnny O'Connor but watch Casey, Barry Everitt and Geraghty as well.

The trip to Dublin will have re-energised links between London Irish and the Irish rugby public. The fact that they play Ulster in their Heineken Cup pool will be of huge significance and will draw a big crowd in both matches. It's a difficult group with Llanelli and Toulouse in there too. But there is a realistic ambition of qualifying from the group and a possible pairing with Munster or Leinster. Eddie would have to watch that one.