I keep telling anyone who'll listen, this version of the game was safer and better.

What a TRULY GREAT player Mike Gibson was!

Toute était plus beau, le stade, les maillots et l'époque En général

A good few are no longer with us - Ray McLoughlin, Moss Keane, Ken Kennedy. RIP boys. Thanks for the boyhood memories of great games.

Fascinating to watch. Scrums formed immediately the ref blows the whistle. No line out gaps and the winger throws the ball in. After a tackle both sets of forwards just pile in. Those were the rules I remember playing under as a schoolboy.

I was there. Gibson.  Genius.

The voice of Bill McLaren brought back so many memories.

"We might not be any good but at leaat we turn up" (John Pullin).

Small boys in the park, jumpers for goalposts... Marvellous!

Nice to see Parker from Thunderbirds in the crowd at 9.50

I have been following and playing rugby since the early 90s and i never knew you could take a mark outside the 22 back in the day

Fergus  you bloody legend🇿🇦🇿🇦🇿🇦❤a real hero growing up

It is very noticeable how much less musclebound the players are.  They look positively lightweight compared with the behemoths in today's game.

Mike Gibson could have done it in any era.

Beautiful real rugby union game between England 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 & Ireland 🇮🇪 … both of teams were fantastic in the great entertaining exhibition of freestyle in counterattacks all the time without boring … I adored Mike Gibson the Irish best centre back for his wonderful performance in energetic all-rounded performance in attack & defence - he scored more fabulous tries by a brilliant teamwork from the awesome hard-working Irish players. I enjoyed to watch Alan Old the effective English stand-off  which was fantastically scored more phenomenal goal-kicking goals in every impossible long distance so calm & optimistic. I have to say that Willie-John McBride the most legendary rugby union captain was a massive role in heroic success for leading his superb team to win a famous match at Twickenham by his inspiring communication with tactical focus on strong England at this uneasier away ground to any opposite team. Fantastic game 👍🏉🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿🇮🇪

Love these old highlights.  The ref appears to be wearing a man at C&A business shirt.

Mike Gibson was a monster , what a player
This match showed me that England were better than their results , they simply had a selection problem buoyed by selectors who were too emotional to see a process through
They got it right briefly in 1980 then in 1988 they had a settled side and game plan

One of the best rugby videos I've seen.

The offloading from Ireland unbelievable, the scrum and the line out unbelievable, Thr crowd Priceless ,i remember going to the old rd when I was a kid , for the World Cup unbelievable atmosphere!! The Kicker old was sensational, bang less than 2 seconds and bang over the bar!!!

Fantastic match, my God this takes me back, I think its one of the first matches I ever watched on the telly aged 12., I had just started playing.
What stands out: the looseness of the open play, the quick scrums, my all time rugby hero the man Fergus Slattery! ( I am English), Irish style of play still recognisable today. No gym monkeys either, some quite skinny guys on that pitch!