The price of failure: Gerry Thornleyon how the value of Irish rugby, Team Ireland and the players has plummeted in the wake of our disastrous showing in France

It's still hard to credit how and where it all went wrong. Rewind to those two competitive performances against New Zealand in the summer of 2006 and the wins - even if they were over-rated - against an experimental Australia and a second-string South Africa. But then, recalling the inconsistent performances in the Six Nations, maybe that's where the problems originated.

"Success is paralysing," said Arsene Wenger, admittedly perhaps the best football coach in the world, in advance of Arsenal's latest win over Steaua Bucharest this week. "If you don't change anything, three years later you are suddenly not successful and you don't know why. You want to repeat quality but also to improve quality, so you have to change. When you lose there's also a resistance to change but when you are a manager you can't be scared to put pressure on and to take a risk by changing. You can't be scared of change."

After an utter and complete failure of a World Cup campaign in terms of planning, strategy, fitness, selection and coaching, for which the one man who was given unbridled power should be held most responsible, clearly no one is more fearful of change than Eddie O'Sullivan. In this, he is closely followed by the IRFU.

About the only encouraging development in the last dismal month has been news that the Irish Rugby Union Players Association are to conduct an independent review into Ireland's World Cup campaign. No doubt an utterly rudderless and one-eyed IRFU will be opposed to it but - fearful of their coach, the system, and their bullying paymasters - at least it's the one forum where the players will feel they can answer questions honestly.

In the absence of any culpability or answers - for the time being at any rate - much damage has been done, not least in the amount of goodwill which has been lost amongst thousands of new fans. Because tickets to Lansdowne Road, especially, and even to Croke Park were largely the exclusive preserve of the well connected rugby/corporate fraternity, tickets for Six Nations' games or for prime November internationals against the leading Southern Hemisphere sides never went on sale to the public.

By contrast, a new army of Irish supporters who had traditionally been cut off from their national team were able to purchase tickets for World Cup matches because they went on sale to the public via Ticketmaster. At least 30,000-plus of them went to the bother of buying grossly over-priced tickets, flights and hotels in what is assuredly one of the most expensive cities on the planet, and in this World Cup has seemed like the most expensive. Others settled for Bordeaux.

They paid their money, bought the horrid new replica jersey, sang the lousy rugby anthem with gusto and even Amhrán na bhFiann, and roared the team on. They have been left totally disenchanted, not so much with the players as with the management and especially a fudging IRFU.

Whatever about this being a golden generation of players, it was certainly a golden opportunity for the sport in this country. For the IRFU, the main foundation of their new-found wealth is their temporary home in Croke Park and budgeting for 80,000 capacity crowds.

For that to happen when Ireland host Scotland, Wales and Italy next season, one ventures they will have to go beyond their traditional rugby/corporate sector and dip into ordinary club members and the greater Irish sporting public.

They might be in for a surprise.

Rugby will not seem so sexy to the corporate world either. There's no doubt that not only the union, but O'Sullivan and many of the 15 Untouchables have dipped their bread considerably with various endorsements and deals in the last few months, and many of those close to them admit that it could only have been an unhelpful distraction. In this, of course, the union gave free rein, and even before the World Cup none of these sat as uncomfortably as O'Sullivan enjoying an exclusive deal with Setanta.

Even if O'Sullivan remains immune to criticism or proper assessment from an in-house review, the value of Irish rugby, Team Ireland and these players has plummeted.

In the shorter-term the provinces (who enjoy little or no dialogue or consultation with the national head coach) will be left to pick up the pieces and rejuvenate players who must feel utterly humiliated - the likes of Alan Quinlan, Stephen Ferris, Paddy Wallace, Bryan Young, Andrew Trimble and Gavin Duffy.

If not humiliated, then others must be completely demoralised, players such as Trimble (scapegoated by the management for a defensive blemish that was at least in equal part the fault of the defensive system), Ronan O'Gara, Peter Stringer, Gordon D'Arcy, Denis Leamy, Donncha O'Callaghan and Geordan Murphy. Or at the very least utterly knackered: John Hayes and Paul O'Connell, to name but two. In hindsight, Luke Fitzgerald and co were undoubtedly better off not going to France and remaining behind.

Come to think of it, all but the retired Denis Hickie in one way or another need some escape from rugby and then/or a return to rugby in the warmer, more enthusiastic environment of provinces who have made light of their absence to date.

News that some players returned from the World Cup four or five kilos lighter further calls into question the pre-season training, the two treks to Polish ice chambers in Spala and the training in France. Even Dr Liam Hennessy - himself with plenty of commercial activities of his own - may have to revise some of his previously held beliefs in the light of news that some players returned from the World Cup having lost that much weight.

Off the pitch too, it could be that the provinces will not be as hurt as Brand Ireland in the next months. Initial evidence to that effect came by way of the extraordinary 10,000 crowd for Leinster's opening Magners Celtic League game of the season. On the pitch too, the flip side of Ireland performing so far below par is that the provinces might well benefit, despite some brutally tough Heineken European Cup draws.

Then, alas, it will be back to the old regime if the IRFU continue to bury their heads in the sand. Hence, come the Six Nations, some players will be left to carry the can. In the longer-term, though, it's worth stating again that the IRB shifted the goalposts - no doubt encouraged by some of the powerful Celtic lobby who have been fearing the worst - so that the top three qualify automatically for the 2011 World Cup.

While not obliged to qualify (thanks to that 14-10 win over Georgia) even so, Ireland's dismal performance will have the effect of ensuring they are third seeds at the 2011 World Cup. This means they are likely to be in another group of death, featuring one of next week's semi-finalists and one of this weekend's beaten quarter-finalists. They could be pitted against one of the Southern Hemisphere big three and England or France.

Of course, by then who knows what Ireland team will be sent to New Zealand. Hickie has retired and many others will have done so in the interim or will not be as good four years' hence, given their age profiles. A cheery thought to be going on with.