As the embers of Ireland’s meek departure from the rugby world cup blew around last Saturday afternoon, the post-mortems began. I’m not qualified enough in the finer points of the tactical side of the game to offer any reasonable analysis, but I’m nerdy when it comes to listening to proper analysts – be they sporting or political.

I sometimes enjoy the full-time analysis of a match more than the match itself. And I’ve become very content plonking myself in front of the TV from 9pm to bedtime every night gorging on the various news and current affairs shows, especially on the BBC.

I’m a bit of a bore when it comes to getting into the groove before a match

Brexit has become for me what Fair City, Eastenders or Home & Away is to soap fans. Sad or what?

Well speaking of sad, back to Saturday.

I’m a bit of a bore when it comes to getting into the groove before a match. I don’t wear luminous wigs or funny hats bearing my teams’ colours. I’ll wear my 1997 Cavan jersey on Ulster final day and I do have an Irish rugby top. But I don’t get my face painted and I don’t sing songs such as the Fields of Athenry whether I’m in the pub or the stadium. I do get excited when my team wins, sad when they lose and annoyed when they don’t play well.

Again, call me boring, but I don’t jump with delight and cheer and laugh when my team scores a consolation score, such as a try when 30-odd points down.

Ireland scored two last Saturday when the match was over.

The TV camera cut to some grown up Irish fans cheering in the stands as if we still had a chance, as if we were on the brink of victory.

Sorry, I admire your passion and the fact that you paid lots of money to be there as the 16th man but cheering with delight close to the finish of such a depressingly heavy defeat? Nah, not for me.

When Leo Varadkar tweets, it’s like he’s opening his front door to allow an angry mob in to slap him around

And then there’s the issue of politicians on Twitter. Why do they bother? When Leo Varadkar tweets, it’s like he’s opening his front door to allow an angry mob in to slap him around. As for Shane Ross, well since his cringy airport welcome home for Katie Taylor, he has become a bit of an online parody with photoshopped pictures of him celebrating whenever and wherever there is success.

Last Saturday as I scrolled online, I spotted a tweet of him smiling broadly in a suit before the match in Tokyo and thought: “Ah it must be another one of those photoshops”. I opened it and to my astonishment, it was actually a real tweet by none other than the minister himself of himself at the match in Tokyo.

Needless to say, it brought out the usual Twitter responses, angry, misinformed and hate filled. Why bother minister?

No matter what they say, it only attracts trouble

Social media provides politicians with a great cost-effective and instant way of spreading their message, particularly for newer candidates anxious to become better known. But it’s simply become counterproductive and provocative for Government politicians to take to Twitter anymore.

No matter what they say, it only attracts trouble. If I was advising any of them, I’d say they’ve a better chance of re-election by just staying off social media.

People see through the tweets if they are blatantly boastful and opportunist. Surely that is more harmful than purposeful? Shane Ross will be the litmus test to my theory. We will see, possibly as soon as four or five weeks’ time.