It was all coach Brian Ashton's idea. In rugby's amateur days Ashton's was a history teacher. What better application to his day job now, as head coach of the England rugby team, than to inject some history into his team's efforts for this weekend in Dublin?

"History is Bunk - discuss," was one of the frequent Leaving Cert history questions of the 1970s. The great American car manufacturer Henry Ford uttered the line, possibly not knowing much about Ireland.

Now history has become part of the plan to undermine Ireland, unless we are to believe that the England squad's lesson this week was a purely cultural exercise.

Ashton called in his former rugby pupil, ex-Irish fullback Conor O'Shea to talk to the squad on Monday night at their training headquarters at Ashton's old stomping ground at Bath.

O'Shea played under Ashton during his brief reign as Ireland coach in 1997, while his Kerry born-and-bred father, Jerome, had in his earlier years busied himself by winning three All-Ireland final medals with Kerry in 1953, 1955 and 1959.

As the current Director of Academy Rugby with the RFU, O'Shea's two hats seemed appropriate enough for this occasion.

"It was Brian Ashton's idea to do it," said O'Shea. "Because he was the Irish coach himself, back when I was playing, he was aware of the history of Ireland and he's also a history teacher himself.

"He thought it was a good idea that I just talk to them about Croke Park and what it means to Irish people. He wanted his team to know that this wasn't just another Irish pitch in Dublin. He wanted me tell them about where they were going to, the background to the ground they were going to play on, that a Tipperary player called Michael Hogan had been killed there by the British army back in 1920.

"So, I told them that while Ireland was leaving Lansdowne Road, which has a lot of rich history and tradition behind it, the team was moving to another stadium in Dublin, which goes right to the very heartbeat of Irish history. They were interested. Genuinely they seemed to be incredibly interested in it. I spoke to the whole 22-man squad and all of the backroom staff."

O'Shea's first-hand experience about how divisive the Croke Park issue could be was brought home to him during a trip with The Exiles to Ireland for some R&R.

"I remember when I was playing for London Irish and we went over to Ireland for some golf.

"They asked me where a good place to go was and of course I said Kerry.

"So the team went to Kerry and we saw this pitch and started to throw a ball around. We were as good as run out of the place by a local.

"I spoke to my dad about it afterwards and he said that he (the local) was one of the people who had actually played rugby as well as GAA during the time of the ban.

"There were lots of reasons for doing this. There is also the possible hostility of the ground. Teams are used to being in hostile grounds but these are the things I talked about.

"Also you've got young players there who really are only thinking about the match and playing rugby and it was important to let them know about any loose remarks that a young lad might say."

After the understated fury of the GAA in regard to the way British officials tried to use the Croke Park match as a political tool, Ashton's decision seems well measured. "I told them about the ban and about how anyone who watched or played other games could be banned," added O'Shea.

"But I also told them about how the England team came over to Dublin in the height of The Troubles when no other team would come and they received a standing ovation.

"What Brian Ashton wanted was to get this over and concentrate for the rest of the week on playing rugby. My impression was that they are very excited about playing in Croke Park and can't wait to come," added O'Shea.