
Share
19th October 2019
03:06pm BST

(Photo by Brendan Moran/Sportsfile)[/caption]
Earlier in the week, Johnny Sexton spoke of the "strange" negativity around the Irish team. Perhaps if he had looked at his team's performances this year he would have realised there was nothing strange about it.
Up until today's game in Chofu, Ireland had lost three of the big four games they had played in - England (L), and Wales (L) in the Six Nations then Scotland (W) and Japan (L) in the World Cup. There was also a record 57-15 beating by England at Twickenham, in a warm-up, but we were assured that was due to England having front-loaded their preparations.
There was nothing strange about Irish pundits and fans fearing the worst. All the signs were there. And, in truth, whether it was New Zealand or South Africa, Ireland at their current, low ebb would have struggled badly against either.
Four years ago, in Cardiff, Ireland were put to the sword by a rampant Argentina side. 43-20 as they were blown off the pitch by a vibrant team showing no fear of playing in the knock-out stages.
At House of Rugby's live show in Limerick, on Thursday, Ireland back-row show O'Brien insisted that his side's four injuries to key players and his suspension from the game had been the difference. "If even one of us played," he said, "I'm convinced we would have won."
Joe Schmidt went back to the drawing board in the winter of 2015 and came back with his solution:
Ireland's tactics looked dated in 2015 but they only made a few tweaks while the likes of England (Ford, Farrell and Slade) and New Zealand (Barrett and Mo'unga) were going for two distributors in their backlines. Changing the point of attack and going with two and three lads making the big plays.
Schmidt wanted his forwards to improve their passing, too, and that has been an area of improvement but those forwards are now losing collisions with worrying regularity.
England, Wales, Japan and New Zealand all had us figured out. Front up in defence, don't commit huge numbers to the breakdown, keep your discipline and wait for Ireland to wear themselves out, or make a mistake. Even Russia caused us trouble for a 40-minute period with those tactics.
Schmidt also went with his old reliables and would die on that hill. Kearney, Best, O'Mahony, Healy, Murray, Sexton, Stander, Earls and Henshaw all started and none emerged with much credit. Players that had shown form - Conway, Farrell, Larmour, Kilcoyne, Ruddock and Beirne - were either on the bench or in the stands.
Sexton talked the talk at two press briefings this week but he most certainly did not back up his big words against the All Blacks. In fairness, few in the green jersey did.
Still, you get the impression that an entirely different starting XV would still have been tonked by New Zealand.
Confidence has been low in this Ireland side since England came to Dublin and trampled all over them. They may have won games since but they have never truly recovered.
Joe Schmidt is Ireland's greatest ever coach but he appears to have brought them as far as he can.
The shame is that the journey appeared to end when we defeated New Zealand in November 2018... 11 months ago.
WATCH 'HOUSE OF RUGBY LIVE IN LIMERICK' HERE: