Far from raising the bar, the new management team has seen it lowered in this championship. That is the brutal and disappointing truth, argues Gerry Thornley

Last year Ireland beat France and England in the same campaign for the first time in almost two decades and a small cabal of IRFU bigwigs sacked the coach. This season anyone with a passing interest in Irish fortunes would have had that sinking feeling in the pit of their stomachs after the first few exchanges that Ireland weren't going to be remotely competitive against either England or France. This was arguably an even more dispiriting defeat, and home advantage for the French cannot explain that away.

The Irish management, and particularly Eddie O'Sullivan, have clung to the fact that Ireland achieved their basic objective of winning their three home matches. That's understandable, for at the end of this campaign it's the only thing left to cling on to.

But the main reason Warren Gatland was removed was the lack of consistency over a campaign and to insure there would be no more days like this. Yet in the two games that truly counted, both were as grim as any of the bad old days.

Perhaps it again shows how difficult it is to insure Irish teams deliver consistently good performances throughout a championship. After all, it hasn't happened since 1985. But far from raising the bar, it has been lowered in this championship. That is the brutal, sad and disappointing truth.

Judging by the the stunned and crestfallen appearance of the Irish management at the post-match press conference, they surely felt this more than anybody. All the late nights of detailed planning, all the training sessions, and for what?

Whatever questions there are about the chemistry of an untried ticket, these are the best indigenous coaches Irish rugby has to offer. Apart from Willie Anderson and Ciaran Fitzgerald, of current coaches no one else has even cut their teeth at representative level.

They deserve time, and we can only hope that Eddie O'Sullivan and his assistants can get it right, and that the step backwards in this campaign can be transformed into a step forward by the time the World Cup arrives.

But if O'Sullivan faced into his toughest job when taking the helm last December, it's become an even tougher one now.

After the initial high of the new regime's first game against Wales, this Irish team have, alas, gone backwards. The forward play, especially, has retreated.

One of the bedrocks of this team had been a good lineout. On average days it at least secured its own ball, and on good days, such as the win over England last autumn, it could make serious inroads into the opposition's.

Last season, Ireland's lineout was virtually joint best with Scotland's, securing 71 of its 84 throws for a return of 84.5 per cent. This season it has dipped to 68.18 per cent, the poorest of the Six Nations.

It is far too dismissive to pin this one on Frankie Sheahan and, on Saturday, Keith Wood. For whatever reason, opponents now seem to be reading Ireland's lineout like an open book. Quite why is puzzling even the Irish management and players. Even allowing for far more video analysis at internaitonal level, it does seem that the Irish lineout isn't doing enough to keep opponents guessing and off-guard.

Instead of sometimes arriving to a lineout several seconds after their opponents have lined up with their minds already made up on the call, and then throwing the ball in as soon as the Irish forwards have lined up (thereby giving opponents little or no time to react), they simply take too long over the throw. There's not enough change to the tempo.

Ironically, one of the sticks used to beat Gatland over the head was that he didn't call in a scrum coach, such as Roly Meates. Yet, for all the specialised coaching employed by O'Sullivan, there's still been no scrum coach, and if anything this aspect of Ireland's forward play has also worsened.

Rugby may be constantly evolving, rules may be tampered with, but the tenets remain the same, and Ireland's set-pieces on Saturday gave them no earthly chance of being competitive.

Despite the worsening platform, the attacking statistics would tend to suggest that Ireland remain pretty much as potent as they were over the previous two seasons. Thanks to the handsome wins and brilliance of O'Driscoll over Wales and Scotland (when, relatively speaking, Ireland lived off scraps too), this team came within a try of the 17 scored in the championship two seasons ago, and they scored 145 points and 16 tries to the 129 points and 10 tries of last year.

But they have also leaked four more tries than the 10 they let in last year, and conceded 138 points as against 89.

The Irish management and squad have bought into the new defensive system, which they say will take 18 months to perfect. But the players' faith in it seemed to crumble when tested by England and France.

Instead of pressing up, Ireland now seek to hold an impenetrable green line which drifts across the gain line. In training initially it's been difficult to apply, and demands not only that no one shoots up to break the line, but that the utmost trust is placed on the player inside.

It's arguable whether this suits the up-and-at-'em Irish mentality, but clearly this trust has faltered, which is hardly surprising when one takes into account the 40-odd missed tackles at Twickenham and the 18 at Stade de France. Set against that, the amount of impact hits can be counted on the fingers of one hand.

How much faith can the players now have in the system after these two highly damaging setbacks? The evidence of this game is that the doubts had already seeped in. One or two Irish players privately concede that, mentally, this was an even flatter performance than the one in Twickenham.

Like a spanner in the works, something has gone awry. And now, for their sins, the management must explain it all to the same cabal of IRFU bigwigs, while the players must face into a two-Test tour against the All Blacks. Neither is inclined to have them hopping out of the bed and exclaiming "Yippee".