TV View: There was much wistful reminiscing on Saturday about the good old days.

On the BBC, for example, John Inverdale showed an old England clip featuring Brian Moore in his prime. "In those days you had hair but no teeth, now you have teeth but no hair - how does that work," he asked.

Moore couldn't answer, perhaps constrained by ill-fitting dentures, but his melancholy hinted at a touch of pining for the days when shampoo was a mandatory expenditure.

Keith Wood was in much the same mood when his BBC shift began, Gabby Yorath asking him what he most wanted to see from Ireland at Croke Park.

"Smiles," he said plaintively, "I just want us to get back to playing like we're enjoying it."

Gabby wondered when Keith had last seen such a gladdening sight. February 24th, 2007 was the rough guess, when England's chariots came a cropper at GAA HQ. Since then, divil a grin. Probably because we expected every day to be like February 24th, 2007. And where's the fun in that?

Divil a grin from George Hook either. And that was before the match. Tom McGurk, boldly going where shrewder men have avoided going before, attempted to convince George that Eddie O'Sullivan was, in fact, a very, very successful coach - "this man has a 66 per cent success rate, the most successful Irish coach ever!" - and, perhaps, deserving of a bit more respect.

At Tom's signal the auld Gladiator unleashed hell. "Look, that's horse manure," said he. "I'm not remotely interested that we beat Georgia, Namibia or Basutoland. We have an inflexible coach, we have an inflexible captain, we have a very average left wing, we have a number eight who . . ." etc.

It was like we'd never been away, which in many ways we haven't, what with the last Six Nations, the World Cup and this Six Nations tripping over each other's heels.

Brent Pope and Conor O'Shea, as is their wont, tried to balance George's despair with a sprinkling of hope, but conceded that, yes, Eddie was under a bit of pressure. Pressure!

"He has retreated into the Fuhrer bunker! If Eddie was in Berlin in 1945 they'd still be fighting! He just retreats and he won't give in! He's playing with imaginary Panzer divisions! He thinks that on the left wing he has somebody who can deliver! Andrew Trimble CANNOT deliver!" That was George talking, by the way. In case you thought it was Jeremy Guscott.

George, then, wasn't entirely upbeat as we approached kick-off, his gloom deepening when he touched on the subject of number eights.

"When a number eight makes a decision his head is stuck between the posteriors of two 18 stoners, that makes making decisions very difficult," he declared, and surely never a truer word has been said.

Anyway, Ireland won, but not altogether handsomely. And it remained a smile-free zone.

George started banging on about soufflés, self-raising flour, oven temperatures and Eddie Hekenui. You know yourself. Incidentally, is that the real Eddie Hekenui on Bebo? "Still the same legendary outhalf/fullback that my legions of fans in Leinster and the low countries recall."

"Dislikes: Matt Williams, Nathan Spooner and Neil Francis using me as a punchline in every Heineken Cup article they write." And the poll on his page - "Who was Leinster's best outhalf before the so called glory days of Felipe?" Option number one: "Me."

At least England v Wales raised the spirits. Half-time. George: "This match is over, don't mind my two esteemed colleagues, this match is over - because Wales aren't as good as Italy and England are better than Ireland."

Full-time. Tom: "George Hook, in your most distinguished career in television . . . that was one of the great calls you made at half-time." George: "Well . . . . . . . . . . . . ", etc.

Warren Gatland for Ireland? Wait, have we not been here before? And what about Eddie? What does his future hold? A Sky Sports News pundit, perhaps? For it was on that very channel yesterday that we bumped into . . . hint: our hosts were previewing the Superbowl when all of a very sudden a cry came from the corner, the Dundalk accent howling "GOOOOOOAL!"

Yes, of all people, it was Steve Staunton. There he was, sitting in the corner, bedecked in tremendously weighty headphones as he monitored activity in the Fulham v Aston Villa game. "Villa look the more likely if they do score . . . looks like Roy Hodgson . . . looks like a shot there . . . but," he told us.

Before then. What of all this Giovanni Trapattoni talk, Steve? "His credentials are second to none, the only thing you have to question there is what's his English like?" Oi. Behave.