Alone It Stands is a 1999 comic play by John Breen based on a famous 1978 rugby union match at Thomond Park in Limerick between Irish provincial side Munster and the New Zealand national team, the All Blacks.
[2] Breen, a Limerickman, remembered the 1978 match as "such a huge event from my childhood" that he was disappointed when its 20th anniversary passed unmarked, and he spent a year researching for a play.
[3][4] A coproduction of two Irish theatre companies, Yew Tree of Ballina, County Mayo and Island of Limerick, was ready for the match's 21st anniversary.
[4] After rehearsals and previews in Kilmallock, it premiered at Waterpark RFC and toured around Ireland for 18 months, playing larger venues as word-of-mouth recommendations accrued, taking in the Edinburgh Festival Fringe, and finishing in Dublin by moving from the Andrews Lane Theatre to the Gaiety Theatre.
[10] Since 2014 the play has been on the Irish Department of Education's list of set texts for the Junior Cycle Student Award in English.