ON RUGBY/Gerry Thornley: After every international this season it has become custom later in the week for the Irish coaches to have to traipse up from wherever they are based, be it Galway, Moylough or Cork, to the Berkeley Court in Dublin and report to a select group of IRFU officials about the preceding match.
Quite what the hell this is supposed to achieve remains unclear.
Given the IRFU quintet includes Eddie Coleman, Syd Millar and Noel Murphy, the trio who have been the prime movers in the hiring and/or firing of Murray Kidd, Brian Ashton, Warren Gatland and Eddie O'Sullivan, at the very least it doesn't seem inclined to inspire confidence, does it? For sure the head coach doesn't own the team. By all means ask for a report from him, say, once every month or two, but after every international? Is that really necessary? In any event, it smacks of the old amateur era, when the IRFU kept a vice-like control and influence over 'their' international team, even to the point of picking it for decades.
It's hard to see what positives it can achieve. It's supposedly designed to make the coaching staff more accountable, and keep them on their toes, but it surely can only run the risk of being too hands on, even to the point of influencing team selection.
These are, after all, the same people who 'suggested' Eddie O'Sullivan take on Declan Kidney as his assistant, even though the two had never worked together before, rather than trust O'Sullivan to pick own assistant, as is the case with any professional sport nowadays. And if coaches are called to account after every setback, can it truly encourage them to think in the longer term, say with a World Cup in mind a year and a half down the road? No less than Gatland before him, or indeed Mike Ruddock (who had to undergo the same nonsense with Leinster Branch officials after every game) O'Sullivan should tell them to sod off.
The Union powerbrokers having been singularly reluctant to hold their hands up for mistakes of the past or gone public about their decision making - they've never revealed their reasoning for removing Warren Gatland - perhaps there'll even come a day when they are called to account.
Apparently some Committee men were fairly angry about the events of Saturday. In their delusions of grandeur, some of the IRFU had come to the view that the Gatland/O'Sullivan ticket had taken the team as far as it could, and that - overlooking the many good days in between and since - there should never be the bad one-offs such as Twickenham two seasons ago and Murrayfield last year.
Instead they get two bad old days in one campaign, and some of them were snorting about this in the Hotel Lutetia in Paris on Saturday evening. What will rankle, presumably, is that the Union have shelled out even more on this championship campaign, for the increase in coaching resources will have meant more money has been spent, on wages, hotel bills, flights and the rest. And they don't like not getting a return for their investments.
But having taken an unpopular decision with the Irish rugby public last December, the aforementioned Union trio will be desperately hoping that they'll be vindicated and that after this step backwards O'Sullivan and Co can still take a couple of steps forward by the time of the World Cup. That at least ensures O'Sullivan of some breathing space.
That's only right as well, and though many Irish supporters will now be more mystified than ever about the decision of last December, there's no real point in pining for Gatland, whatever about the wins over France and England, or the first 50 minutes against the All Blacks. Wazza is a Wasp now (and is probably damned glad he is). Life moves on.
Prior to the Six Nations, O'Sullivan was reluctant to think ahead to the World Cup and said "my main priority is the here and now," and the continuing selection of Mick Galwey (for the first three games) and Peter Clohessy for the entire five, coupled with the selection of Gary Longwell over Paul O'Connell, certainly reflected that.
But on Saturday after the game O'Sullivan said the focus now had to be on the World Cup, with Keith Wood also saying everything had to be geared toward that. It's a pity therefore that O'Connell hadn't a couple more games under his belt, or a new scrum had taken shape, before heading over to New Zealand.
Mentally the squad can't be looking forward to that. One of the most worrying aspects of Saturday was that not even the presence of a fired up Keith Wood could inspire the troops beside him. Yet while much has been made of the 10-match itinerary this season in partially excusing last Saturday's performance, that doesn't really tally. After all the English squad carried the main load for last summer's Lions' tour and have since played nine Tests this season, while France, after a three-Test tour of South Africa and New Zealand, played eight Tests this season, as did the Scots.
France, it is true, deservedly won the Grand Slam after outboxing and outfoxing England in the one epic encounter that mattered of a largely boring, severely splintered championship, but they were putrid against Italy, lucky against Wales and mostly functional against Scotland. England arguably played better rugby more often (scoring the most and conceding the least). The annual wounds inflicted by the Celts and the French over the last four years might only make their resolve stronger and serve to keep them hungrier than otherwise would be. You can learn more in defeat than victory. They could ultimately benefit more from the mistakes of Paris if they adopt more of a pragmatic, contingency game away from home, and so could yet be the pick of Europe heading into the World Cup.
Hence, even with the soundest foundation in recent memory, heralding France as the best European bet for the World Cup is premature. No less than England they are heavily on reliant on key members of an old guard, especially Fabien Galthie.
Meanwhile, the abysmal keystone cops rugby of Cardiff on Saturday again reaffirmed what the Celtic League was telling us last August about Scottish and Welsh rugby. Indeed they, and particularly Wales, are the true failures of the Six Nations, not Italy. More than ever, Ireland are stuck in the middle with no-one for company. Whither now?
gthornley@irish-times.ie
