Top marks for application, but power and panache missing

England tried it before imploding spectacularly at the 2011 World Cup and now Ireland have followed suit.

Wearing a predominantly black outfit may help to make you look like New Zealand but it doesn’t guarantee you will play like them. Perhaps Declan Kidney sanctioned the strip as a sharp reminder to his side of that horrible day in Hamilton last June and that record 60-0 defeat to the real All Blacks.

When the Irish squad assembled at Carton House on August 24 to review the fallout from that tour — and specifically what happened in that third test — a number of issues were identified for attention. Top of the list was why the team had a tendency to start slowly in test games. Some of the squad raised questions over their standards in training while others reinforced the point that, despite all the success at provincial level, performing in an Irish shirt had to be their number one priority.