Kicker conspiracy

Back in that innocent age we called "June", when it looked like every group in the first round of the World Cup (the first round? Remember?) might end up in one of your actual lotteries, we pondered on the last time that happened: to wit, when Ireland and Holland finished joint second in Group F of the 1990 edition. More precisely, we wondered whether we were imagining things when we thought that said lottery had been televised. We were, after all, quite young, and were probably outside playing football at the time.

But the Après Match team were way ahead of us, and they dug out the footage at the beginning of the tournament as they gathered their showbiz pals to make one last plaintive plea for Ireland's rightful place in South Africa.