The impassioned bloke on the right is Chilean striker Ivan Zamorano who played the entire game against Brazil on Saturday with the same passion that he belted out his national anthem before it.

Zamorano was the very soul of national pride and fervour, singing his jaunty national anthem with all the ferocity of nightclub drunk treating his mates to Ol' Blue Eyes's New York, New York of a Friday night.

Many of the South Americans playing in France 98 are similarly inclined, giving it loads of wellie on their anthems. Jaded and flabby Europeans, of course, could never be accused of this, probably because

most don't even seem to know the words. Included among this bunch of non-singers are Tony Adams, who came in for a rollicking back in Blighty because he had the misfortune to be caught on TV not mouthing his wish to `send her victorious' before their match with Romania. Or what about the French side, most of whose lips seemed to be wildly out of synch with the crowd's passionate rendition of their anthem. Nothing to do with the fact that a few of the players are drawn from France's far flung colonial holdings and were probably brought up thinking the Marseillaise is a salad dressing.

Now, of course, no `Irish' player would ever be caught out like that would they?