Friday January 4,, 2008 will forever be a date firmly etched in my memory. I spent the day on trains between Limerick and Belfast. 

I left Colbert Station at 7.25am last Friday, bound for Belfast to broadcast the Ulster and Munster Magners League game, and returned at 10.30pm without leaving the train in Belfast, as we had been informed at Portadown that the match was called off.

It was, to say the least, a most frustrating day, with countless phone calls and text messages to the Munster and Ulster pros in Belfast.

I fell asleep on the outward Limerick to Dublin journey, waking up at the Curragh to look out on the blanket of light snow which covered the Racecourse and surrounding fields.

I arrived in Dublin at 9.55am and got the Luas to Connolly Station, as I had intended to catch the 11am train to Belfast.

Two journalists from ‘The Irish Examiner’ joined me at Connolly, and the texts started to fly in earnest.

We stayed in Connolly and were informed that there would be a further inspection at 1pm.

We made contact with the Ulster PRO at 1.10pm, to be told that there was going to be a further ground inspection at 3.30pm, so we were left with no alternative but to board the Enterprise train bound for Belfast, accompanied at this stage by a number of Munster top brass, led by Chief Executive Garrett Fitzgerald.

The final call informing us that the match was cancelled came as the train approached Portadown.

A rugby reporter’s life is not all glamorous… but I suppose I got a taster of how Tom Hanks felt in ‘The Terminal’!

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