Let’s go back to 2003 before the Ireland v England rugby game in Lansdowne Road.
It’s a moment that shook and outraged Irish sport when England captain Martin Johnson refused to move his team into their correct position for the presidential greeting.
England had lined up on the left hand side when facing the tunnel, which was said to be Ireland’s lucky side. When asked to move his team, England captain Martin Johnson refused, so Ireland lined up to the left of them, with no team now on the right hand side, leaving insufficient red carpet on that side.
A day after the game the Irish Rugby Football Union sent a written apology to the president for the England team’s failure to “follow established and communicated protocol”, while the Rugby Football Union also sent her a “full and unreserved apology”.
Having dismissed it at the time as “a fuss about nothing”, Johnson later explained ahead of meeting the president again in Ireland for the 2011 Championship that he had lined up on that side as it was customary to line up on the side you warmed up on, that he had no prior knowledge of the protocol, and his subsequent refusal to move was because the request came from some “random guy”, rather than the match referee.