ALL roads lead to Rome, they say, but if there’s one thing that path clearly showed yesterday was that modern Nations Cup battles are more and more beginning outside the ring.

While each member of Rodrigo Pessoa’s squad entered the ring in Rome yesterday absolutely determined to do their flat out best in the green jacket, it was a tough uphill battle in round one and the team of Shane Sweetnam, Shane Breen, Paul Kennedy and Mark McAuley, showed real tenacity, talent and fighting spirit to climb back up the leaderboard to finish equal third, gaining 75 vital points for Ireland.