New ferocity drags innocents into the blood-spilling

IT should have been an intriguing tale of who came back and who came on. It should have been a story of contrasts between the reassuring return of Jonathan Sexton and Seán O'Brien from injury to start the game, and the blast off the bench of Vincent Debaty, Uini Atonio and Romain Taofifenua. The rugby stock of Belgium (Debaty) and Polynesia (the other two) rose considerably after they nearly turned a game that was going Ireland's way on its head.