RUGBY:If France wanted a pick-me-up when they were down on the ground, Ireland's dreadful performance by Ireland in Bordeaux provided it in spades. Not alone did the scarily close margin of 32-17 - itself only embellished by a slightly contentious late try - mean that Ireland's chances of progressing in the event of a three-way tie in the shark-infested Pool D are paper thin; on this evidence Eddie O'Sullivan's team would not beat Georgia, never mind the other two contenders.

The respective crowds were a true barometer of the mood. Whereas the home supporters adopted the Namibians in blue with increasing gusto - and probably shock - as the night sunlight faded into floodlight, the initially carnival-like thousands of Irish supporters in the 33,000 crowd were ultimately reduced to a disbelieving watching brief, and filed away silently.

The World Cup has induced untold amounts of embarrassment on Irish rugby but no-one expected the sixth edition - given a supposed golden generation of vastly experienced players in their prime and every conceivable assistance in terms of preparation - to provide such another low.

At least O'Sullivan didn't shy away from the reality of this damaging opening performance.

"It was pretty much like watching a horror movie at times. The performance was very, very poor. I expected us to be a little bit edgy in the first 20 minutes but we actually got a few scores on the board and got worse as the game wore on. We made an awful lot of errors and overall it was a very very disappointing performance," said O'Sullivan, who admitted he struggled to remember a worse one: "If we play like that against Georgia, we won't get a result."

"It was a really awful display," conceded Brian O'Driscoll, who made light of the strap on his shoulder holding in a nerve injury that it is hoped will clear up this morning.

"It started badly, and it got worse as the game wore on. No excuses. It's like a defeated dressing-room. A massive, massive disappointment and a huge, huge amount to improve on."

A willing Namibian team looked clearly well prepared - in part by Nick Mallett, Robbie Kempson and Alan Solomons - given they have only six professional players among their ranks and they lost 105-13 to South Africa in their last warm-up game.

The same could not be said for Ireland. The pack's play was again curiously lacking in cohesion. What, pray tell, has happened to the Irish maul? Even the lineout is a long way from its former lustre. As for unforced errors, Ireland made 18, Namibia 12.

Buoyed by an encouraging early start, Ireland showed an impatience to go through the phases and a surprising reluctance to outflank the rush midfield defence by going wide.

There was palpable emphasis on clearing out the ball as soon as the ball carrier went to ground after the problems at the breakdown against Italy, but this too quickly deteriorated amid a failure to hit rucks in sufficient numbers or force. In fact, Namibia more than matched them in this regard, throwing bodies horizontally into the breakdown and charging into contact in a way only Denis Leamy, Paul O'Connell to an extent and, once near the end, Neil Best managed.

Though Jerry Flannery also provided the late try, once again, there was hardly any use of the bench, much less impact; the sight of Geordan Murphy coming on in the 82nd minute summed it up. In truth, save for the bonus point, a few scrums and presuming no untoward injuries, there was nothing in the actual performance for Ireland to take from this game.

No less than Namibia's adopted French supporters in the stadium, this will have given l'équipe de France serious hope. Namibia will be first to face the wrath of the home team in Toulouse next Sunday.

Sadly for the unfortunate David Skrela, his tournament could well be over with a damaged tendon but there will be the ensuing return of Frederic Michalak, perhaps others from the Toulouse ranks such as Clement Poitrenaud - ridiculously omitted from the first game - and perhaps Thierry Dusautoir and Yannick Nyanga.

The Namibian coach Hakkies Husselman admitted that game will be far tougher, not least because the French reaction to that seismic opening defeat to Argentina will make the home side a different team. Ditto when they play Ireland.

"We struggled in the scrum," he admitted, "but the lineout went a bit better. We put tremendous pressure on Ireland and they made silly mistakes, which we capitalised on. But definitely I thought the guys played very well and I'm very proud of them."

Incredibly, in praising the fitness coaches to this collection of mostly amateur and professional players, their captain Kees Lensing observed, "I think the Irish guys looked a little more tired than our guys, so that's a compliment to our fitness work."

He also said Ireland were better when the sides met four years ago, and there's no disputing that.

It certainly isn't a compliment to the fitness work, training and millions being poured into this Irish squad, or to whatever has been done in the 10 weeks of preparation. This performance went way deeper than silly mistakes - though they did more than anything to invite Namibia into the match.

Whatever the playing permutations, that is six bad Irish performances in succession, and counting.