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Today Irish crowds in the South are quite ready to make sporting heroes of players from the North. The five members of Northern Ireland clubs in the 31-man Irish squad in Japan can expect much the same level of adulation if the team lives up to its recent winning form. One of Ireland's greatest stars, Willie John McBride, who won 63 caps, is from a Protestant farming family in the North. So too is current captain Rory Best, who won a standing ovation when he played his last home match, in Dublin, the republic's capital, before setting out for Japan. Old differences, of course, are more readily overlooked if the side is winning, says Ruairi Croke who writes on sport for the Dublin-based Irish Times. "This is a small country and we will jump on board any sporting bandwagon that looks its successful."

Of course, fielding a single side brings practical problems. When the Irish squad travels to internationals, it takes three separate flags to fly at the host stadium: the tricolour of the Irish Republic, the Ulster (Northern Ireland) flag, and the flag of the IRFU. And new challenges continue to arise. The old tensions between North and South have eased since both the Irish Republic and the UK in the European Union. But the UK's likely departure from the EU will test the any spirit of cross-border understanding, and strain already divided loyalties. And knows how a post-Brexit "hard" border, needed for customs checks, across the island might affect relations ?