As the postmortems on a dismal World Cup campaign get underway, Ireland coach Eddie O'Sullivan will need all the support he can muster and will be glad to hear that his captain is leading the case for his defence by blaming the troops rather than the General.

A comprehensive 30-15 defeat to Argentina yesterday dumped Ireland out of the tournament and secured the Pumas a quarter-final against Scotland next Sunday.

The bitter taste of failure is not an unfamiliar one but given the hype surrounding the squad it is certainly unexpected. It has looked inevitable from day one, however, after Ireland faltered against Namibia and Georgia before defeat to the hosts and the Pumas.

O'Sullivan, who was awarded a new four-year contract only a week before the tournament began, is under pressure to explain events of the last three week, but Brian O'Driscoll claims the responsibility lies with the players, not the coach.

"It feels very low to be knocked out of the World Cup. It's the second time I've felt this way at the hands of Argentina," said the skipper. "It's tough to take but that's sport. If you don't perform you don't get the rewards. A lot of the onus has to go on the players.

"There's only so much coaching that can be done. The responsibility is on the 15 guys that take the field.

"We didn't front up enough during the four games. Maybe we played some half-decent rugby against Argentina but it was too little, too late.

"As individual players we'll look back with disappointment at the way we played."

O'Sullivan has pledged to see-out his contract and insisted a disappointing World Cup has not diminished his enthusiasm.

"Things haven't gone to plan but that's no reason to walk away," he said yesterday.

Ireland began the day needing to beat Argentina by more than seven points while scoring a minimum of four tries, but that target looked way beyond them, despite a lively start to the game.

Beautifully executed scores from O'Driscoll and Geordan Murphy gave them feint hope but Argentina, who led 18-10 at the break, were in the ascendency throughout

Wingers Lucas Borges and Horacio Agulla crossed in the first half for the Pumas, Felipe Contepomi booted 11 points and Juan Martin Hernandez weighed in with a hat-trick of drop goals.

After finishing top of Pool D, Argentina will be red-hot favourites to topple Scotland - but skipper Agustin Pichot insists his side will remain humble.

"Scotland have proved they are in the best eight in the World Cup, even though everyone wrote them off," he said. "They are like us in that everyone has also written us off.

"They are no less than us as a team and we can't afford to go into any game thinking we're better than anyone."