Jerry Flannery brings an edge to every conversation. He has a straight way of talking that is raw and occasionally revealing, while up close the Irish hooker's face is a map of his recent past. That cut is Namibia. The one across the nose is Georgia. The bruising along the cheeks and ears is France.

Flannery sets himself square and looks people in the eye. He cries during Ireland's Call and did so before the game against France.

When he plays rugby he plays with a dynamic, selfless style that takes people with him. Maybe that's why he was asked to step forward by management yesterday to consider why Ireland's hold on this competition is gossamer thin. Typically Flannery now sees Argentina as a challenge to rise to.

"They (Argentina) had a good result last night," he says. "It's easy to go into your shell. Weak fellas go into their shells in times like these. It is a part of your character to be able to get a big performance next week."

For Flannery this last week was difficult. His friend Ronan O'Gara had his private life opened up in the media, while the hooker himself earned a miserly 4.5 points out of 10 from L'Équipe for his imprecise throwing to the lineout during the French match. There could be reason for being disillusioned.

"Disillusioned is wrong," he says. "We are not where we want to be in the World Cup right now. People are disappointed but it is not like we are falling out with each other. Everyone is still getting on well.

"If you are on a winning side everyone is happy. When you are losing you are a bit more down. People get this idea that we're all bickering. It's genuinely not true.

"I've heard stuff that we are always fighting in training and that people are walking out of camp . . . I don't know where it's coming from.

"My girlfriend actually told me that she got an email that went on for ages listing stuff that had happened. I was saying that some of it was crazy - Geordan Murphy walking out of camp, that some lads were seen in Northern Ireland on the piss. I was saying what the hell is going on here. It's ridiculous."

As sure as a war starting makes weapons manufacturers millionaires so to does perceived failure crank up the rumour machine. Surfing the crest of a run of good results has its own medicinal values that always seem to disappear when teams hit some serious speed bumps.

Despite O'Gara's forthright denials of the printed rumours and allegations about his marriage and gambling debts, that whole episode added to the sense of collective malaise in the Irish squad. A squad down on their luck and a player down on his snugly fitted into the caricature of a team in crisis.

"Ronan is a friend of mine," says Flannery defiantly. "And it's disgusting what's going on there. That's his own private life and I don't know why it's in the press. Everyone is good friends with Ronan and to see one of our mates treated like that is appalling . . . I don't want to go on about it."

The week ahead, however, is crystal clear and the off-pitch dramas of last week have been left behind. The days leading up to Argentina will be focused on a high-risk strategy and an unlikely target of four tries against a team that has not yet conceded any in the tournament.

Players are trained to believe. Now is no different, although the sense of individual responsibility has become stronger than ever. "We can only be coached and prepared up to a certain point. Then we've got to back it ourselves," says Flannery.

"That is why it has been so disappointing. If you could blame it on one person it would be such a simple thing to do. But it isn't. It's the players on the field. We've been prepared as best as we could and we've gone out and made stupid mistakes.

"Eddie O'Sullivan doesn't coach us to drop the ball, so if we go out and we drop the ball it's our fault. All the best teams are coached by the players themselves when they get on the field. We're not performing on the field. The buck stops with us."

Then off he shoots to take advantage of Sunday down time. But he leaves you with the feeling that for one intense player, the next six days will be an eternity.