Why jubilant Irish fans might be in for a rougher ride at Cheltenham

In 2018, England played in the World Cup semi-final against Croatia and lost the game in extra-time. Afterwards, I lost count of how many tweets I saw from Irish people thanking their lucky stars that England hadn't won. Their argument was that if England had won the World Cup, the gloating would be unbearable.

I have some sympathy with those who felt that way – there's little doubt the English rate themselves pretty highly at the beautiful game for a country that hasn't won a major trophy for more than 50 years – but the gloating would have been nothing compared to what the British racing fan has had to suffer since the 23-5 beating dished out by Ireland at last year's Cheltenham Festival.

Anyone would think it had been that way for years as one pundit after another indulged in vitriol about the poor state of British jumping in comparison to the all-conquering Irish.