NOTRE DAME WERE easy 42-3 winners over Navy in the season-opening College Football Classic at the Aviva Stadium on Saturday.
Quarter-back Sam Hartman threw for four touchdowns on what was his Notre Dame debut, completing 19 of 23 passes for 266 yards.
Kick-off was delayed by a few minutes because the Premier League game between Brighton and West Ham – shown on the same US broadcaster as the Notre Dame/Navy clash – ran late because of the length of stoppage time.
Pregame performances included drums, fiddles and dancers on the Notre Dame end during warmups. There was also a US military flyover ahead of kick-off.
As part of the weekend celebrations, Dame Street was renamed Notre Dame Street and closed to traffic from 8pm on Friday to 10pm on Saturday.
The event brought an estimated 40,000 travelling fans to Dublin.
Additional reporting by Niall O’Connor
As long as BOD can walk onto the pitch, he should be Captain!!
I agree with Noel – why all the red thumbs !? – O’Driscoll should be captain.
Its the whole as long as he can walk bit. Nobody is bigger than any team…
Well… I believe a captain should always be a forward. But, BOD is a talisman. While he’s fit and picked leave him b. After that… Well, there are a few outstanding candidates brewing around the provinces…
No, the best man to captain a rugby team is always a forward. My shout would be Stephen Ferris
As fine a player as he is, I don’t think Ferris is captain material
Author, have some bottle and don’t tell the reader “the answer is yes” let the reader decide for themselves. It is a valid question to ask, and I can see your reason for being a little scared no press person dares speak ill of BOD. He has earned that respect in fairness, although his game against scarlets was shocking hope his form improves soon he wont get in to the Lions team on current form, Jonathan Davies and Jamie Roberts/Tuilagi are well ahead as it is now.
A captain has to lead on and off the pitch. nRef’s listen to BOD other players listen to BOD he has earned a respect above with only PoC in the current squad to compare with. nThere is no better 13 on this island and this earls stuff does earls no favours. He’s a winger and a very very good one but at 13 his defence is average and he can’t/wont pass the ball. He wants to play 13, well I want to fly the space shuttle neither are good ideas. nAs far as a forward as captain goes every team has a pack leader so why not allow a back to lead the team as the ref will talk to pack leader and captain too, helps if ref takes a dislike to one or the other. nAs for ferris the man has never put a run of games together, every third or forth game we’d need someone to step in. Not a good idea. n