As the final whistle blew last night, Roy Keane practically leapt on Ireland manager Martin O’Neill.
The pair ran onto the pitch to celebrate, locked in an embrace and presumably exchanging sweet nothings in one another’s ear.
Today, O’Neill has broken his silence over what he said to his assistant yesterday as the two rejoiced in the win over Italy.
According to the Irish Times, O’Neill said “I told him to shave his beard. It was rustling my chin and I don’t want him to hug me again ever.”
Pressed for a more serious answer, O’Neill maintained the jokey facade, saying “He said, ‘You are an ugly sod’, and I agreed wholeheartedly. I then retorted and said he wasn’t Paul Newman either.”
We don’t need to know exactly what was said between the two men – all that matters is the team-talk before the game clearly did the job.
