Two Irish fans were threatened with arrest during the France/Uruguay game on Friday because they unrolled a banner reading 'Henry Le Cheat' aimed at French World Cup player Thierry Henry.

Clearly the passion felt in Ireland against Henry and the French team who got to the World Cup with that notorious cheating incident against Ireland still lingers.

The two Irish men were warned they would be put in jail if they did not take down the banner.

They decided that a South African jail on opening World Cup weekend might not be the best option and they agreed.

Meanwhile Henry came on to play the last eighteen minutes of the game.

The French striker is just a shadow of former greatness and his name is forever now associated with the hand ball that won France their World Cup place.

And wouldn't you know it --Henry had an appeal for a hand ball turned down soon after he came on when his shot struck a defender.

Judging by the stale French effort against Uruguay they will not be hanging around the tournament long.

Good riddance as every Irish person would say.

UNDERSTANDING OFFSIDE

U.S. commentators revealed a lack of knowledge of the game when questioning why Mexico were not allowed a goal that was called for offside.

They argued that a defender was clearly on the goal line as the shot came in and therefore the Mexican player was not offside.

However, the referee was utterly right.

The rule is that two players must be between the attacking player and the goal.

One automatically assumes that is the goalkeeper and one outfield player.

In this case however, the keeper had advanced far off his line to try and clear a corner kick, so only one player was left.