WHO would be the best if rugby’s World Cup-winning All Blacks played Superbowl and world champions Denver Broncos? Or who is the best driver in the world between current F1 world champ Lewis Hamilton or world rally champion Sebastien Ogier? In fact, let’s throw 2015 NASCAR winner Kyle Busch in to that mix as well. Or would UFC legend Conor McGregor beat former heavyweight boxing champion Tyson Fury in a square go? Hopefully is the answer to that last question.

I remember the respective best club sides from League and Union in England, Wigan and Bath, meeting in a double-header during the mid-90s. Wigan ran Bath ragged in the League code tie, Bath dominated the Union game, especially in line-outs and scrums, but just couldn’t fathom out how to beat the Wigan defence, which has become the norm in the Union game as well.

Individuals and teams excel in their own chosen sports; but you need to rewrite the rule book and bastardise the regulations to get any kind of a head-to-head contest in place to decide who is best. And that’s what happens when the best of the shinty world do battle with (some of) their hurling counterparts from across the Irish Sea in the annual Marine Harvest International between these two clans in their regular ‘battle of the ash.’

Bucht Park in Inverness played host on Saturday to the latest trial in the series, that also included a women’s match and an under-21 game, both won by the Irish. Scotland’s senior men, however, managed to avert a Celtic whitewash by taking the main event 14-5 in what was, as the scoreline suggests, a one-sided contest.

Yes, the Scots, marshalled and inspired wonderfully well by their coach Ronald Ross, suppressed all efforts by the Irish visitors to make this an even, or equal joust. Scotland got ahead early on, and, but for a brief moment, when the GAA’s select brought it back to 2-2, they never looked like losing.

However, it may have been as much of a triumph for the convoluted, contrived and confusing rules – adapted, adopted and understood better by the Scots than the Irish – as it was a real test between two teams armed with sticks and an abundance of talent.

Certainly, the scoring system may need some tweaking before much longer if this is to be kept as a viable and evenly balanced challenge. Perhaps three points for a goal, two or one for a shot or free over the bar, depending whether it is off the ground or in the air.

Commentator and historian (I almost added ‘legendary’ and ‘veteran’ there) Hugh Dan McLennan agrees.

“Being honest, when manufacturing this contest and the rules around it, some key parts of what the hurlers normally have at their disposal are eliminated," he said. "They can’t handle the ball. If they could, sad to say, the shinty boys couldn’t live with them. Similarly, if the Irish turned up with all their top, semi-pro hurling players, they’d just be too good for our totally amateur team.

“But these compromises have been thought out and evolved to give us a level playing field. We won on Saturday, but the Irish for instance, badly missed the ability of the McGrath brothers in midfield, two All-Ireland winners with Tipperary. That would have changed things to a degree.

“However, the tactical nous being shown by the coaches today is to such a level now that they are able to strangle the opposition as an attacking threat. Hence why we didn’t get any goals at the weekend.

“For me, some minor amendments to the scoring wouldn’t do us any harm. It’s all about evolution and making changes to better the spectacle for players, TV viewers and spectators,” said the BBC’s voice of shinty.

“So to that end I’d make it five points for a goal, and just the one point for putting it over the bar, either from a free or open play. That might encourage the coaches to be more adventurous and make for a better contest. We can but try.”

HDM’s observations are sound, and, well founded. This is a hybrid sport, and the regulations (or maybe calling it a handicapping system wouldn’t be too wide of the mark) have been schemed up to make it interesting and, ultimately, close. If the gloves came off, and both sides played at full-strength, and to their set codes, Ireland would win 99 times out of a hundred. The other game would be a draw.

No, this is the only chance these guys get to enjoy international sport. So, it should be encouraged, not knocked.

There was though, a real flatness amongst the players after Saturday’s game, even for leading marksman Kevin Bartlett, who played some Seve-esque shots, turning the ball in and out to hit the target with regularity, but who conceded he’d “missed a few, but so did the Irish boys which is unusual for them.”

When the result from this one is long forgotten, the memory of Irish goalkeeper Eoin Reilly going on a charging run down the wing late in the game will live on. As will the expression on the face of Newtonmore’s Glen Mackintosh as the Laois man galloped past. Definitely one for the Christmas DVD.