It was the manner of defeat as much as the defeat itself which hurt the most; Ireland's surrender against Argentina in Lens on Wednesday night was, as Edmund Van Esbeck notes in today's editions, one of the greatest disappointments in the history of the game on this island. The spectacle of the Irish team endeavouring to score a try in stoppage time, but lacking the flair or skill to do so against supposedly second-rate opposition will linger long in the memory. Even the very considerable incentive of a prospective World Cup quarter-final match with France at Lansdowne Road tomorrow did not wake the Irish team from their apparent stupor. Rather, it was the Argentinians who played with fire in their bellies. And it was the Argentinian part-timers, buttressed by the support of the neutrals in Lens, who played rugby as it should be played.
Ireland is now the only seeded team not to make the World Cup quarter-finals. The Irish coach, Warren Gatland, was a forlorn figure after the match as he cast around for some crumbs of comfort and anticipated - if that is the appropriate term - the Six Nations. Inevitably, traditionalists will now relaunch their campaign against the professional era which has cossetted the players, handsomely rewarded them with contracts and endorsements but stripped them of the fire and character that used to carry Ireland, quite literally, over the line. It is a seductive argument but hardy a credible one for the longer term. Professionalism is now a fact of life in the modern game. If Ireland hopes to compete on anything like level terms with the world's best, it must ensure that its rugby set-up stands comparison with the best. Traditionalists may yearn for another more innocent era but in this modern era of hard-nosed professional sport it is hard to see how the clock can be turned back.
Regrettably, it might also be time to challenge our level of expectation and to question why Ireland with a tiny rugby-playing population, should assume that it will always have a place at the top table. Our poor record against the other Six Nations teams over the past decades - and our inability to cope with the emerging nations - suggests that we may have an inflated notion of our own ability.
There will now be predictable calls for the sacking of Warren Gatland and his management team. But Ireland has already been through a succession of high-profile coaches in the last decade. Is there any guarantee that a new management set-up, working with much the same nucleus of players, will make a significant difference?
It may be that root and branch changes are required at all levels of the game. It may be that rugby needs to move beyond its own cosy, middle-class enclave and into the wider community if it is to widen the available pool of talent.