His face rouged by extreme effort, Anthony Horgan slouched on a chair in a marquee in the West Stand car-park at Lansdowne Road. No one would cavil with the Cork Constitution, Munster and Ireland wing. It had been a tough day at the office.
Surveying the bank of microphones, Horgan paused before trying to articulate just how traumatic defeat had been. New Zealand rolled into town, chose a composite side and then handed their hosts an almighty thumping.
The search for positives from an Irish perspective produced little more than crumbs. The team had disintegrated under the pressure, not short on perspiration but completely undermined by lack of precision.
Balls hit the deck, were fumbled or were thrown forward and there was too little cogent option-taking.
Good habits and skills allow players to survive and function under pressure; Ireland won't need a second look at the video. You couldn't but sympathise with Horgan as the black-clad hordes descended on his lonely outpost in numbers.
"(They were) awesome, just really came non-stop, wave after wave," he said. "The way they spread it was amazing. Every kid should get a video of it and watch it. The way they play rugby is absolutely fantastic, spreading it one way and dragging opponents into rucks and then moving it back to the other corner. There were stages there when it was two or three on one."
Horgan brought candour to the post-match requiem, an important quality given the circumstances. Had he ever experienced that kind of 80-minute assault?
"To be honest, no. It's easy to see why they are the best team in the world. Nothing compares to that. I was sitting beside Rog (Ronan O'Gara) after the game and just looked at him and suggested that someone dig a hole and put us in it.
"We didn't even have the ball. Physicality-wise, skillwise, they're streets ahead of any other team that's out there. I think they showed that against the Lions, they showed it last week and they showed it again today. They are going to be very hard to beat."
To point up that physicality, Horgan referred to a post-game dressingroom conversation with Denis Leamy.
"I was chatting to Leams after the game and he was saying that Richie McCaw, who would probably be their smallest forward, well, just the strength of the man was phenomenal. If you're capable of making 15 changes and coming out and performing like that - it says a lot for New Zealand rugby."
Hooker Shane Byrne had already felt the rough edge of an All Black team as part of the Lions Test squad. He wasn't surprised by what they produced at Lansdowne Road.
"What we expected was that if we made mistakes they would punish you. That's their strongest points. We did it three times (made mistakes) and they scored three tries in the first half. You've got to make a side like New Zealand work harder to get their scoring opportunities.
"The only way you can live with New Zealand or even beat New Zealand is as South Africa showed in the Tri-Nations, to get in among them. Just keep your ball, don't make mistakes, don't knock the ball on and don't turn the ball over. You just can't live with a team that are on form like they are when you're doing that.
"We did stick with it. Mistakes are mistakes and they were being made all the way through the game. There was nobody on that pitch that didn't try as hard as they possibly could try. Nobody wants to have a knock-on, nobody wants to miss a tackle, but these things happen. You live and learn.
"We're professionals now. We have to go back and concentrate on Australia and make sure we produce a better performance. We have to. It's international rugby. There's no in-between. When you put on that green jersey, you have to play as well as you can play. When we analyse things it will show that we were lacking in areas. We have to change that. You've got to play a picture-perfect game against them.
"The days of going down to scores like that should be gone. We have our injuries but they're only excuses at the end of the day." Eloquently put.
