The pressure to perform and beat Argentina was intense anyway regardless of what Ronan O'Gara said in private or public

OH RONAN O'Gara; he has a lot to answer for. Never mind his much-debated honesty last week, nor the merits of his man-of-the-match award, his 12-point haul or his precision crossfield kick for Tommy Bowe's try.

If O'Gara had nailed the subsequent conversion he would have pushed Argentina below England into fifth place in the IRB World Rankings and so put them in the same band as Ireland for next Monday's draw. Thank-you cards on their way from Los Pumas? Unlikely.

It appears risible in the extreme that England could be rewarded for a record 42-6 defeat at home to South Africa by being propelled into fourth place and a top-tier seeding, but such are the ridiculous complexities of the IRB rankings and the additional percentage points which are accrued or lost when the margin exceeds 15 points.

In any event, the only change sees France and Wales swap places in sixth and seventh after their defeats at home to Australia and New Zealand, which has negligible effect on the draw as both remain in the second band of seeds.

England will have another opportunity to sneak into fourth when they face New Zealand at Twickenham on Saturday, but even allowing for the All Blacks' difficulties at Twickenham they look cast-iron certainties to complete another Grand Slam tour.

Wales, too, could slip into the top four, but not only would they need England to lose, they would have to beat Australia by more than 15 points. Given that the Northern Hemisphere teams have struggled to score a try against the Tri-Nations, much less beat them, that looks almost as fanciful.

So then, there remains a one-in-four chance that when the pool allocation draw is made next week - when the top four are drawn randomly with the countries ranked fifth to eighth, and then with those ranked ninth to 12th - that Ireland will be permed with Scotland and all the print and discussion devoted to the draw will have been relatively meaningless. More to the point, though, there will probably also be a one-in-four chance that Argentina and Ireland will be drawn together for the fourth World Cup in a row. Ye gods.

But at least Ireland have removed the possibility of being permed with two countries ranked above them; say, the All Blacks and their French bugbears.

It was a tough position for Declan Kidney and his coaching ticket to have been landed in, but that was partly the fault of the IRFU in first having extended his predecessor's contract for an additional four years, and their failure to act decisively straight after the World Cup. The net result was that, in terms of a World Cup cycle, last season was largely wasted. The one other union to have dithered and prevaricated even more damagingly was the RFU, and look at the ensuing mess England are in. And whatever about Ireland's slow rebuilding, save for Wales, the other European countries are not progressing significantly quicker. Suddenly, it's hardly looking like a vintage Six Nations.

At least Kidney has managed to start 22 players over the last three games, and used 27 in total, although there remain issues regarding the team's back play, offloading and support game, and the speed of their ruck ball. In any event, had Ireland's basic target of the past three weeks not been achieved, there undoubtedly would have been a dark shadow hanging over his reign for the next three years. The win over Argentina not only removes that shadow but also helps to make a break with the dismal run of results over the previous 18 months, and the legacy of the World Cup fiasco had clearly left the core of the team low in confidence.

As is his wont in latter years - what with a biography before his career was even completed - O'Gara is certainly hogging things lately. His Roy Keane-like career conversion to a winning mentality and demand for excellence has certainly contributed to his words dominating the headlines and airwave discussions last week. This column is reluctant to join in the furore, however, not least because when a player breaks ranks from the increasingly customary diet of bland clichés, it should be applauded.

There's a school of thought that O'Gara undermined Brian O'Driscoll's captaincy, or somehow heightened the pressure on the players to perform. Perhaps there's a small element of that, and perhaps also O'Gara was a little too aggrieved at missing out on the Munster match himself, but the pressure to perform and beat Argentina was intense anyway regardless of what O'Gara said in private or public.

If he had said nothing publicly would Ireland have swung from the hip and scored a hatload of tries? Would Ireland have converted Tommy Bowe's first half break into a try? It was hardly O'Gara's comments that fouled that up, or saw Ireland retreat into a conservative tactical shell after the interval.

If it affected anyone, it was most probably himself given he looked too wound up for his own good, but given the circumstances and the nature of the opposition, he might have been of that temperament anyway.

But surely the relatively toothless display against the All Blacks (who were keeping the opposition tryless for the third Test running at the Millennium Stadium on Saturday, and keeping their opponents pointless in the second period for the fifth game in a row) and Munster's herculean efforts against their midweek side achieved that all on their own.

As Rob Kearney said afterwards, O'Gara had merely blurted out what everyone was thinking anyway, and if they weren't thinking that they should have been. Indeed, Kearney's 'what's-the-big-deal?' response looks far more appropriate.

There's been a similar furore about William Gallas' much more internally revealing and damaging events at Arsenal, which, given they are something of a model club, was of far greater significance. But what do we want of our sports stars? To say nothing? Increasingly, Ireland seems to have become something of a nanny state, full of rules and regulations and political correctness, and sport generally is becoming symptomatic of that too. As Roy Keane also said last week, people are too easily upset when somebody says something.