Exiting at the quarter-final stage of the World Cup is a clear failure for the IRFU. The stated objective in Plan Ireland – the "white paper" providing a "concise summary of the strategic goals for Irish rugby over the next four years (2013-2017)" – was for Joe Schmidt's men to go where no men's senior national team have ever been before: a semi-final.
The strategic plan signalled that a new “performance director,” who turned out last year to be David Nucifora, would “lead the implementation of the plans to deliver sustainable higher performance in Irish rugby at both national and provincial levels, with the ultimate objective of improving Ireland’s performance at the 2015 and 2019 Rugby World Cups.”
Sunday’s 43-20 defeat to Argentina scuppered that stated intention.
What follows now need not be a drastic change in playing personnel, but certainly Paul O’Connell and perhaps Mike Ross will not be summoned to Schmidt’s check-in desk when Six Nations preparations start over the Christmas period.
Ross, who turns 36 in December, publicly sought a two-year contract at his last visit to Nucifora’s negotiating table, before accepting a one-year extension that ends next summer.
“I certainly hope so,” said Ross on Sunday when asked if he will wear a green jersey again. “It’s up to Joe really. For myself, I’ve just got to get back to Leinster, fight it out with Marty [Moore] and Tadhg [Furlong] and see who makes it there.”
Tightheads
So far this genial Cork man, who has gathered 56 caps despite only making his Six Nations debut aged 31, has done a fine job keeping the younger tightheads at bay.
Injury has slowed Moore’s progress, just as it decimated Ireland’s hopes of adhering to their white-paper plans.
“I think in order to do well at a World Cup, you need an awful lot of things in your favour,” Ross said. “You need a bit of luck too, and unfortunately we seemed to run out of it in the last game against France.
“I think we used it all up. You can’t give a side like Argentina the head start that we did. That said, when we reeled them back in and got to 23-20, I thought we’d a real good chance of pushing on and taking the victory. But they’re a very good side, and they pulled away again.”
Ireland have been hugely unlucky. The mere mention of the names O’Brien, O’Mahony, Sexton and O’Connell seemed to answer the next question.
“A lot of those lads would be the spine of the team; a lot of leadership loss there,” Ross said. “But we back our squad 100 per cent to deliver. I think the lads who stepped in will learn a lot from the experience.”
Plan Ireland, published in 2013, looked at the 2012 Olympics in London. In particular, the IRFU identified the "nothing left to chance" policy of the British cycling team, which "has much to teach those who aspire to see Ireland winning at world level . . . Because Ireland is a relatively small rugby-playing nation, aspirations to succeed at the highest levels will only be delivered if all the systems and structures contributing to and driving Irish performance at national and provincial levels are world class."
That focus can now narrow to a seventh defeat in World Cup knockout matches in seven attempts, 2007 being the exception as Ireland failed to get out of their pool after losing to France and Argentina.
That was famously described as a “blip” by then and current IRFU chief executive Philip Browne. Ross was asked if this latest defeat can also be seen as a blip.
“I don’t know,” he said. “I remember back in 2011 feeling fairly similar, but we had a full squad to choose from. We’ve a lot of talent coming through, there are a lot of boys who will hopefully learn from this and push on in Japan in 2019.”
The 2011 quarter-final defeat to Wales was shadowed with regret after the standards set in beating a Wallabies side that recovered to reach the semi-final. But regret was not the main emotion after Sunday’s game.
“At the same time, we know ourselves we let ourselves down in the first half,” said Ross. “We can’t give them that sort of lead and expect to recover easily from it.”
But recover they did. Ian Madigan kicked two penalties and converted tries by Luke Fitzgerald and Jordi Murphy, but he was off target with two more penalties.
Sexton injury
On Friday, Schmidt told us that Johnny Sexton “trained fully . . . we believe he is ready to go”.
When the risk level was broached, Schmidt said: “We don’t tend to take too many risks with injured players. Johnny, himself, is ready to go. There’s risks in everything you do. There’s risks in making the selections we do.”
By Saturday lunchtime, it was revealed that a further scan showed a “very minor adductor [groin] strain.” So no risk was taken. When forwards coach Simon Easterby was asked if the groin was Sexton’s only injury, he replied: “Yep.”
Schmidt conceded afterwards that Madigan’s 60th-minute miss, with Ireland trailing 20-23, proved a seminal moment in Ireland’s World Cup campaign. Moments later, Nicolás Sánchez made it 20-26.
Thereafter, the game and the IRFU’s best-laid plans went away for another four years.
