So, the journey is over and mystery still seems to surround the issue of why the Irish Rugby Team didn’t play better.

It is not so much a mystery as simply the result of what happens when you expect too much from any team.

There was the “Golden fifteen” who had their position on the team and who were pretty untouchable and then you had the rest of the squad who helped them in training. That is a problem, to be honest. You are never giving hope to a breakthrough player and you are allowing the regulars to begin to relax somewhat. You need to be hungry for your position on the team and from what I hear and from what I saw, this danger of loosing your place did not exist.

Perhaps, the example of Geordan Murphy today showed that the bench contains players that are not simply there to make up numbers. You look at the Kilkenny Hurling team and you see more talent and experience on the sideline than you see on the field for most other teams. Players need to be blooded and blooded at a time when there are experienced playes playing as well - not blooded on those days when Ireland send out a B-team.

The other issue is that it is really difficult to peak twice in any given year. Ireland were the best team in the Six Nations this year, in my opinion. They could have won the championship and Grand Slam. I really felt that. They had enormous pressure on their shoulders with the whole Croke Park issue and beating England in Croke Park must have been emotionally draining.

I used to play Hurling and I hold an All-Ireland medal at schools level. Not quite the same thing and we were not professionals, however, I know how same-old same-old it can get in the dressing room when you are constantly being told that today’s match is the most important match of your lives. The Irish team have had this all year long. Every match, it seemed was the most important match ever and even though you firmly believe that it is important and you brace yourself for every game and you try your best, there is only so many times you can really go all-out.

The biggest difference in the two teams today was the chasing up of the ball. Argentina did it and Ireland didn’t. The number of times that Geordan Murphy or Dennis Hickie caught a high ball, took off on a run and there was no support from either the backs or forwards was impressive. The Argies chased down every ball, targetted every player and closed down all space.

They reminded me of the Armagh Football team. Their tactic seemed to be to close down the player with the ball, commit three players to killing the ball and keeping the ball in the Irish half.

Well, it worked and they are now oficially a good team and they would beat us again tomorrow if we played them again. It wasn’t a fluke.

Where do we go forward? Well, we begin to widen our circle of players with experience and we begin to trust those players. ther is no doubt that we have a good system and we have some confidence in our ability to play open rugby and indeed skillful rugby. We willl come good again and I suspect that Eddie O’Sullivan will stay in the job. I have no problems with that, because I suspect that he too will evolve. I have always liked his confidence and I still do.

This team gave us one memory of Croke Park that will not be forgotten soon. I’m not sure that even winning the World Cup would have eclipsed that memory, so as far as I am concerned, well done to this Irish team, it didn’t work for this competition, but hey…

Comments welcome.