Pitch imperfect - 20 years since The Sunday Game changed its tune

Twenty years ago today, Ireland suffered one of its greatest sporting injustices as The Sunday Game theme was replaced.

It appeared to be the last of Last as the German composer saw his jaunty jingle replaced by a more bombastic offering that screamed 'Celtic Tiger'.

What followed were petitions, claims of death threats and, after a few years of stubborn resistance, a climbdown by RTÉ with Jägerlatein - James Last's famous tune - filling homes across the country once again.

Timing is everything and the decision for change in 2004 - when Pat Spillane also made his debut as a presenter - coincided with the rise of Web 2.0, a shift in the internet’s output to more participatory content.

We need your consent to load this comcast-player content We use comcast-player to manage extra content that can set cookies on your device and collect data about your activity. Please review their details and accept them to load the content. Manage Preferences

So while the first years of the net were spent watching the 3D animation of 'Dancing Baby', what followed was the facilitation of interaction and feedback, which would eventually give birth to social media.

This social web saw the new theme music discussed on forums (remember those?) and a petition ‘to bring back The Sunday Game theme tune’ garnered thousands of virtual signatures.

Reading back on the online discussion at the time, there was a resounding thumbs up for The Sunday Game’s new graphics, as they tried to modernise their product, but a resounding ‘no’ to the musical switch.

One can only imagine the reaction had Twitter/X been in existence 20 years ago.

Glen Killane, then RTÉ head of sport, revealed that it wasn't all jovial watercooler chat.

"The outcry was quite extraordinary," he