GAVIN CUMMISKEYpoints to Ireland's lack of a Plan B (despite three months in camp) and a backline with no coherent philosophy

TURNS OUT all that glitters is not gold. I’ll be 33 in December so I grew up in the shadow of this heroic generation of Irish rugby players. I first marvelled at this demonic-looking 19-year-old lock Paul O’Connell splintering rucks for Young Munster in the AIL, while a tiny version of Brian O’Driscoll whizzed past me, kitted all in black, as a Willow Park under-13.

So many special days followed yet it feels like the journey ended seven days ago. Of course, the best relationships of one’s youth are rarely cleanly severed. They get agonisingly stretched until a bitter separation becomes unavoidable. No, the greatest ever gathering of rugby men on this island will go on, and they will win again, but some time over the next two years this Ireland team will be finished by an awful hiding. Change will be forced. That’s how elite sport works.

And these men will embrace such an end like the gladiators they are.

When the World Cup comes to England in 2015, for people my age who have watched O’Driscoll, Gordon D’Arcy, Paul O’Connell, O’Callaghan and Ronan O’Gara since we were teenagers, it will no longer feel exclusively like our team. That time passed last Saturday, gallingly, at the hands of Wales.

Why was the expected leap to greatness not taken?

“When we got beaten to the collisions, we didn’t have a Plan B,” said Keith Wood on Newstalk this week. “We got flatter and tighter as the game went on when we needed to be wider and deeper.”

When Declan Kidney finally ascended to the Irish head coaching position, after Eddie O’Sullivan stubbornly wasted the 2008 season, he did so in a considerable position of strength. His Munster team had just confirmed their legacy by capturing a second European title playing a distinct brand of rugby which centred around a vice-like grip up front and the punishing kicking game of O’Gara.

Simple yet wonderfully effective, the IRB changed the rules of the game so such tactics became practically defunct.

And yet, where did Kidney’s Ireland go last Saturday when it became clear Warren Gatland and Shaun Edwards had them sussed? Up the jumper, head down and into a red brick wall. O’Gara spurning penalties – okay Wellington is notoriously windy – as the pack sought to smash Wales into submission. Until about 18 months ago, we’ve seen this done countless times to the best European club sides. In Thomond Park.

Wales prevailed by attacking our established pillars of strength. Individual performances at half-back proved crucial. Jamie Roberts and Jonathan Davies ran hard through midfield. And, most shocking of all, Sam Warburton and Dan Lydiate prevailed in the backrow brawl. After the uplifting defeat of Australia, minus the transcendental David Pocock, the ferocity levels were maintained to beat Italy. It also ensured the direct manner of play became utterly transparent.

No Plan B despite three months in camp together. Stop Stephen Ferris and Seán O’Brien at source and Ireland run out of ideas by the third or fourth phase. Again, why?

Some very excited noises could be heard from the Leinster camp following the initial knowledge imparted by Alan Gaffney – 10 years ago. Not that Gaffney is to blame for the failure of the current Irish backline to evolve into a feared and complex attacking unit.

Kidney played a type of Russian roulette with the halfback combinations, ultimately, to the detriment of the team’s progress.

Last Saturday, the bullet was in the chamber.

At the midway juncture of the IRFU agm on July 22nd, without warning on a Friday evening, the communications manager handed out a piece of paper stating that Kidney, Gert Smal, Less Kiss and Mark Tainton had signed contracts for a further two years. “The only member of the current coaching staff that will not be continuing to work with the team after the World Cup is Alan Gaffney. Gaffney has decided to return to his native Australia after the tournament where his aim is to remain in elite rugby coaching in some capacity. No decision will be made in relation to the position of backs coach until after the Rugby World Cup.”

It begs the question: how much influence did the universally respected “Riff” really have these past few months? “Alan is contributing a huge amount to the progress of the team and I know he will make a positive contribution with his vast rugby knowledge and skills to whatever area he gets involved in,” wrote Kidney on the same piece of paper. If considered so valuable, why let him go? What’s more elite than international rugby?

Eddie O’Sullivan popped up on Setanta’s iTalk Sport the other night. Thankfully the journalist and author Paul Kimmage refused to let him waffle on about not putting “jam on his eggs” without a decent grilling. One of the issues raised was O’Sullivan’s working relationship with Kidney during their time together as Ireland coaches. O’Sullivan admitted that while Kidney was the official backs coach, he wanted a more hands-on role. So Kidney was marginalised.

The Kidney and Gaffney relationship clearly wasn’t as fraught with underlying tension as Eddie and Deccie but they are both backline coaches hailing from two vastly different schools of thought – Pres Cork/Dolphin versus Randwick/NSW Waratahs.

Something had to give.

Granted, O’Gara curbed his instinct to chip or grubber in opposing 22s, but the backs, despite their vast array of talent, were never allotted the essential training-ground time to develop a coherent philosophy.

Another factor worth stressing is Ireland’s lack of consistency. Until the victories over Australia and Italy (Russia is irrelevant as the team changed) the team hadn’t produced consecutive performances of sustained quality since the opening three Six Nations games in 2009.

The destruction of England last March raised hopes, but five drab outings followed before the beautiful vision of Ferris manhandling Will Genia on September 17th. Italy were outmuscled and then broken in the wide channels, with O’Gara’s assured place-kicking settling collective nerves.

History insisted we should not fear Wales, but concerns about very spiky form were drowned by the waves of delirium sweeping across the country. This may sound like a hopeless lament. It’s not. If you saw the number of kids flinging around rugby balls behind the RDS stand on Saturday night, you will understand just how bright the future can be.

The next decision is crucial. The man chosen by Kidney to be the next Irish backs coach must not be Kidney himself but someone with a coaching CV to rival Smal or Kiss. And he must be provided the scope to evolve Ireland’s style of play. Only then can we develop a smarter attacking strategy to ensure the next time Plan A falters, Plan B or even C can be rolled out.

There can be a bright future, the real shame is O’Connell and O’Driscoll won’t be part of it for much longer. They deserve so much more than they got.