The Five Nations Championship went into history last Sunday afternoon at Wembley Stadium. Had it been the task to write the script for a really exciting finale to the championship that has graced the calendar for the better part of this century, then it could not have matched the drama that unfolded at Wembley, the timing and the consequences.

Scott Gibbs' injury-time try and the conversion by Neil Jenkins turned the championship on its head, so to speak, and deprived England of the Grand Slam, the Triple Crown and the championship and meant that Scotland had won the title. That allied to the fact that France ended up with the wooden spoon emphasised yet again just how unpredictable the series has so often been through the years.

When the final whistle blew at Wembley, I was reminded as I have been a few times during the course of what has been by any standards a great series - even if not particularly auspicious from an Irish perspective - of the comments made early in the season that England really should seriously think about not bothering to play their Celtic neighbours who just were not good enough. Those comments came from a former England player.

Alas they did no more than illustrate the arrogance we have seen in recent times from a certain element in the game in England. Remarkably that same source is now telling us what a wonderful series it has been this season.

Let us now hope that the new Six Nations Championship will provide us with the kind of memories and some of the drama that has marked the Five Nations series. It is a great championship that has grown in appeal through the years. Yes, we have World Cups and European Cups and Super-12 series and Tri-Nations series, but the Five Nations Championship has always been a very special jewel with a unique appeal.

Several times during the week I have been asked if I have ever seen a finish to a match in the championship to equal what happened at Wembley for drama. It set me thinking back through the years and there could be no more appropriate time to reflect on great teams, great matches, great surprises and dramatic finishes.

It is 51 years since I first saw a match in the series, that was against Scotland at Lansdowne Road in 1948. That was a very special year in the annals of Irish rugby as Ireland achieved the Grand Slam - to date the only one. Ireland won the match 6-0 against the Scots but it was the excitement of being present as a young schoolboy and the fact that Ireland won rather than any quality that remains in my memory. But that was a great Ireland side. Some who saw it would say the best Ireland team of all.

Ireland won three championships, two Triple Crowns and a grand slam between 1948 and 1951.

But within the context of exciting finishes, the answer is that I can readily remember several matches that finished in the most dramatic manner. The first was at Murrayfield in 1971. Wales, then beginning to scale the heights in what has become known as the decade of the dragon, were losing to Scotland as the game entered injury time.

Wales scored a try - I think it was Gerald Davies - in the corner. That left Wales a point behind and John Taylor stepped up to kick a magnificent conversion and set his side on the road to the Grand Slam.

The following season Ireland trailed England 12-10 at Twickenham as the game entered injury time. Then Kevin Flynn broke through for a great try to win the match with Tom Kiernan adding the conversion points for a 16-12 victory.

Kiernan won his 50th cap in that match and Flynn had been recalled to international rugby after six years' absence for the match against France a fortnight earlier in Paris. Ireland had played both away games that season before Wales and Scotland had been due to come to Dublin. A Grand Slam beckoned but Scotland and Wales refused to travel.

That Ireland side, coached by Ronnie Dawson - he was the first national team coach - was one of the best Irish teams I have seen. It included such as Kiernan, Tom Grace, Flynn, Mike Gibson, Barry McGann, Johnny Moloney, Ray McLoughlin, Ken Kennedy, Sean Lynch, Willie John McBride, Denis Hickie. Stewart McKinney and Fergus Slattery. Many of them were still there when two years later Ireland won the championship.

There certainly was some justice in that late winner for Ireland as Bob Hiller had deprived Ireland of victory both in 1970 and 1971 with two dropped goals in 1970 and three penalty goals in 1971.

I can also remember a dramatic injury-time penalty kicked for Scotland from the touchline by Andy Irvine at Murrayfield in the early 70s to foil England. And who will forget Ireland's journey to the Triple Crown and Championship in 1985.

AT Murrayfield it was an injurytime try by Trevor Ringland, superbly created with a great back line movement that saw off the Scots. And then after Ireland drew with France and beat Wales, England came to Dublin with a Triple Crown and Championship at stake for the Irish.

The match at Lansdowne Road on March 30th 1985, should, in fact, have been played earlier in the championship but was called off because of a heavy snow fall. England also had much to play for as they too still nurtured Triple Crown and Championship hopes, having drawn with France and beaten Scotland.

It was 10-10 as the game entered injury time. Then came Michael Kiernan's dropped goal and Lansdowne Road erupted. Ireland had won the Triple Crown and Championship for the second time in three years having also won the dual honour three years previously under the inspirational leadership of Ciaran Fitzgerald. Tom Kiernan coached the 1982 team and Mick Doyle the 1985 side.

But those dramatic finishes are but a small part of the story of the Five Nations Championship. The memories of great matches and individual feats of heroic proportions come flooding in. There was Ireland's demolition of Wales at Lansdowne Road in 1970 and the 17-3 hammering of England by Ireland in 1993.

It had been a truly great championship through the years that has given so many so much pleasure, including the visits to Twickenham, Cardiff and Paris and more recently Wembley Stadium. Those from other countries cherish their visits to Dublin. Let us hope that the new millennium and the new Six Nations Championship will see the status of the annual series enhanced. The Five Nations Championship has indeed been a jewel in the crown.