The Six Nations Championship match between Ireland and England at Lansdowne Road tomorrow will be the final act in what has been a protracted 2001 campaign.

The foot-and-mouth outbreak imposed its difficulties on international rugby as it did on so many other facets of life.

Of course, it was very disappointing that three of Ireland's matches had to be postponed, not once but twice with the dates set in April and May after the initial postponements, also falling victim to the same factor.

When it was finally decided that the completion of the championship had to be deferred until this season, there were suggestions that it was "dead in the water", to quote one English club owner and that Ireland should be made play the matches in Paris or some such venue.

That showed the kind of sensitivity and awareness of difficulties that too often we have seen from the same source. Well, a capacity crowd at Landowne Road tomorrow is a very effective answer to that prophet of doom.

The postponements did not help any country, not least England and Ireland. The England team played four of their five matches and won all four and Ireland had played two and won two, thus the momentum was halted.

Yes, the match is a hold over, but no less eagerly awaited and important for all that. For England, the reward for victory will be a Triple Crown and Grand Slam. Such prizes eluded England in the last two championship campaigns when they fell at the final hurdles, to Wales at Wembley in 1999 and to Scotland at Murrayfield in 2000.

It brings together the sides that stand first and second in the Six Nations series, but, should Ireland win, it would have to be by a margin of 61 points in order to take the title, and there is no need to elaborate on such a happening.

There always has been something very special about the annual match against England, our oldest opponents and the second oldest pairing in international rugby dating back to 1875. In the roots of the rivalry lie tradition, but equally the desire to win prompted by historical factors. Tomorrow is no exception.

But there has, too, been a special affinity between the two unions through the years and a great mutual respect, friendship and regard. We saw it in 1973 when England came here after Scotland and Wales had refused to do so the previous season.

The advent of professionalism brought changes in union personnel and, sadly, attitude and that imposed its own strains and stresses on long-held principles and mutual objectives, not least centred on the television contract when the English Union saw fit to go it alone and very nearly paid a very high price, expulsion from the series. That brought the continuation of the championship as we know and love it to the brink before common sense and justice prevailed.

There will, of course, be two matches between the countries this season as Ireland will visit Twickenham in the 2002 championship on February 16th.

There is a precedent, too, for two matches between the countries in a season. In 1988, they met twice, in the championship at Twickenham and then in a special Dublin Millennium match at Lansdowne Road in April 1988. England won both.

No one can reasonably argue against the fact that England has been the outstanding team in the series in recent years, even if there has been the odd slip-up. Ireland's last win against England was at Twickenham in 1994.

Then, as now, the English team was odds on to win. A memorable try by Simon Geoghegan and two penalty goals and a conversion by Eric Elwood saw off the English that afternoon.

But reference to 1993 is probably more relevant in the context of the match tomorrow. Then, as now, Ireland had lost six successive matches to England who inflicted a few very heavy defeats, such as 35-3 in 1988; 23-0 in 1990 and 38-9 in 1992.

Ireland played Wales in Cardiff on March 6th 1993 and won 19-14 having lost to France in Dublin and Scotland at Murrayfield. That win in Cardiff had arrested an 11- match losing sequence for Ireland.

A fortnight after the win in Cardiff, England came to Dublin the warmest possible favourites and with a team that included 13 Lions and on the back of successive grand slams. They got hit by a blitz they could not contain and Ireland scored a famous 17-3 win.

Two men who played for Ireland that afternoon and indeed in 1994 will be on hand again tomorrow, Peter Clohessy and Mick Galwey, who scored the only try of the match in 1993.

That win in Cardiff a fortnight earlier had done much for Irish confidence and I have no doubt at all that the odds against Ireland winning tomorrow are now shorter than they would have been had Ireland lost in Cardiff last Saturday.

The changed line-up in Cardiff last week after the bitter disappointment of Murrayfield coincided with the vastly improved performance in every respect, even allowing for the severe limitations in the Welsh team and was, I believe, a much more accurate assessment of the ability of the Ireland team than what we saw in Scotland.

Furthermore, the fact that Ireland has now played two matches in the space of a few weeks, should also help the cause. Lansdowne Road tomorrow should represent a very tough assignment for England, who will be without their captain Martin Johnson and Lawrence Dallaglio.

But those losses have been played down by coach Clive Woodward.

England will, nonetheless, be warm favourites and rightly so, but conscious that another fall at the final hurdle is more than a remote possibility.

In conclusion, the match represents a very special occasion for Ireland hooker and captain Keith Wood. He will win his 46th cap and so will become Ireland's most capped hooker, beating the record of another great Ireland player Ken Kennedy.

Wood will also be leading Ireland for the 24th time and so equals the record of one of the legends of the game Tom Kiernan. An Ireland win would make it a great hat-trick for the Ireland captain, not to mention the knock on benefits for Ireland in the days ahead.