Late on Saturday night South African coach Jake White, captain John Smit and manager Zola Yeye trudged into the media tent to present a united front. White was typically affable and honest, but Yeye, who heavily criticised the coach earlier this year, grimaced silently throughout the press conference.

It sparked memories of Pa Whelan's uneasy relationship with Brian Ashton during the darker days of Irish rugby.

One utterly perplexing admission by White was that no plan B existed when the one-time fearsome rush defence began to leak around Bryan Habana.

"I'm still confident that our defensive system works," he said. "I have no doubt it works when it's executed properly. One of my frustrations as a coach is no domestic team in South Africa uses it."

Therein lies the difference between the respective unions. Everyone in Ireland sings from the same hymn sheet while in South Africa the franchise system, as in England, is all about self-fulfilment.

White tipped his hat to the IRFU.

"There is a compulsory 10-week off-season in place for conditioning. Ireland's forwards, mostly, play for one region: Munster.

"Their backs play for one region: Leinster. They have a half-back pairing that play together every week so there is no surprise that they are successful at international level.

"You look at the Crusaders and the Brumbies. They have predominantly the players that play for New Zealand and Australia. Ireland are getting the same sort of fruits that those teams are giving to their national set-up.

"I can only applaud and congratulate Irish rugby for what they have achieved."

If not for the All Blacks' mesmerising demolition of France in Lyon on Saturday, Ireland would be rated very near the top of world rugby this morning. Instead, they must be content in the chasing pack alongside next week's opponents, Australia.

And yet, we the media should never become cheerleaders with laptops.

The Irish bench wasn't utilised again - Paddy Wallace's first cap for his country cheapened by a failure to touch the ball. Ditto Frankie Sheahan and Malcolm O'Kelly, who trotted onto the field in the 80th minute.

Eddie O'Sullivan explained his reasons for maintaining this conservative approach.

"I suppose we were trying to get the bench on. We got Simon (Easterby) on early for his lineout experience and Neil Best had put in a ton of work.

"Then we got Bryan Young on for Marcus (Horan) as the front row had taken a bit of a pummelling. Andrew Trimble had a slight twinge of his hamstring so we got Geordan (Murphy) on there.

"I got Isaac Boss on as I thought he might change the rhythm of the game.

"I felt, in the second half, there was no point in springing players too early. We had a good rhythm in our game and we could lose our rhythm. If they got a couple of scores quickly, the game could be back on. So, you have got to balance that off."

The balance in Irish rugby is certainly evident; now consistency of performance must be added. The Wallabies will provide an ideal challenge.