overcome

For Heart of Midlothian, the tantalising, scarcely-believable, bottom line is this: after 66 years they may be crowned champions of Scotland on Wednesday.

A large asterisk must sit beside that sentence, of course. For history to happen, Hearts must beat Falkirk at Tynecastle and Celtic lose to Motherwell at Fir Park.

Few can see it turning out this way, but Hearts’ home record is exceptional and Motherwell have already beaten Celtic this season. Schooled them, in fact.

That was in Wilfried Nancy’s time, though. A relative lifetime ago.

There’s been so much change at Celtic, Martin O’Neill’s wise counsel dragging the team forward and back into contention after the dismal days under Nancy.

They’re still playing catch-up, though. Still chasing and knowing all the while that one slip of their own against Jens Berthel Askou’s impressive and dangerous side and it could be curtains.

Despite trailing Hearts by a point, Celtic are the bookies’ favourite to win the title again. The cold-blooded odds-layers have rarely bought into the Hearts fairytale, most of them reckoning that Celtic would come good in the end.

The mere fact that Hearts have come this close is trippy. Thirty-six games played, 3,240 minutes across 10 months, table toppers since September and they have arrived at this point.

In their greatest league season since falling on the last day 40 years ago, they’ve been doubted along the way. Laughed at in the beginning when Tony Bloom bought into the club and said they could split the Old Firm in one season, and questioned in December when they dropped points in four games in a row.

Scepticism came in waves in late spring when they lost to two of the bottom six and then drew with Livingston, plumb last in the Premiership.

Injuries hampered them then as they hamper them now, but Hearts kept the show on the road. ‘Believe’ is the Tynecastle mantra, the gospel the manager Derek McInnes has preached.

Despite losing their previous eight Six Nations matches, Wales came into the game with confidence after they registered a record four tries against world champions England in their last outing.

They started stronger in Belfast, but Wafer gave Ireland the lead against the run of play when the back row’s persistence paid off and she forced her way over the line before Dannah O’Brien added a challenging extra two.

Wales looked to respond quickly with a huge tackle from Parsons denying Hannah Dallavalle after Carys Cox had taken advantage of a mix-up and fed the ball through.

The visitors kept pushing and registered their first try when Georgia Evans dived over from close range and Keira Bevan was able to convert to level the match.

A double movement denied Cliodhna Moloney-MacDonald after she had powered her way over as the home side, buoyed by a vocal crowd, began to settle.

Wafer then turned provider, shrugging off multiple white shirts before a superb offload to Parsons, who raced down the right wing to restore Ireland’s lead.

They then struck a hammer blow just before the break as, opting to play on with clock in the red, Ireland were rewarded for their persistence as they added their third try when Hogan crossed after sustained pressure from a ruck.

After the restart, a television match official [TMO] check confirmed Moloney-MacDonald’s kick out at Evans warranted a yellow card.

Wales were unable to take advantage of having an extra player and it was soon 14-players apiece for a period as Jasmine Joyce was shown a yellow card for placing her hands on the ground when bringing Eve Higgins down.

As the hour mark approached, Aoife Dalton and Linda Djougang linked up and fed the ball to Wafer to cross to secure the bonus point.

Bemand then turned to his bench and made a flurry of changes which added energy to their play.

Replacement Jones thought she had added Ireland’s fifth shortly after her introduction, only for her effort to be ruled out after a TMO review.

Joyce added Wales’ second try in the final five minutes as she held off Parsons and stretched to ground the ball.

Ireland did land a fifth try in the final seconds as Hogan bundled over from close range, with O’Brien able to convert for a fourth time.