It wasn’t meant to end like this
That defeat at the beginning of February was their eighth on the trot but Wales garnered enough positive energy from their second- half fightback that day to turn their championship fortunes around, despite the extreme pressure they were under.
Self-belief is a quality Ireland are sadly lacking at the moment. That the side competed manfully to the bitter end of this forgettable championship is scant consolation as a truly catastrophic sequence of events consigned them to the root of the table, avoiding the ignominy of a wooden spoon on points difference to pre-tournament favourites France.
Their plight looks even worse than ours.
From the moment that dreadful Ireland’s Call was performed at funereal pace before a stirring rendition of the magnificent Italian anthem Inno di Mameli, Ireland were on the back foot. The bizarre nature of this game was best summed up by the diminutive Ulster scrum-half Paul Marshall winning his first international cap with just minutes remaining as a replacement for the towering Donnacha Ryan. There was simply nobody left standing.
Everything that could possibly go wrong on Saturday did so with an extraordinary sequence of events when Ireland lost Keith Earls, his replacement Luke Fitzgerald and Luke Marshall to injury and Brian O’Driscoll to the sin bin for an incident that could have seen him sent off in probably his last ever appearance in an Irish shirt. He could yet face the wrath of the citing commissioner.
This necessitated the repositioning of Peter O’Mahony on the left wing where he was on the receiving end of a quickfire grind from Rob Kearney and O’Driscoll during every break in play on the nuances of defending on the wing at this level. It beggared belief that the Italians never sought to exploit his inexperience in the role and says everything about O Mahony’s footballing instincts that he survived there without being exposed.
The atmospheric Stadio Olimpico is within touching distance of the crumbling Coliseum but even the ancient gladiators had better odds against the lions than Ireland’s mashed together team for the vast majority of this contest. It said everything about the hosts’ limitations that the game was still in the balance entering the final 10 minutes.
Injuries apart, Ireland’s attacking structure, even when at full strength in the opening 25 minutes, was all over the place. I have said on more than one occasion over the last few weeks that Paddy Jackson is at least two years off being ready for international rugby. He takes the ball too deep and shuffles across the pitch facilitating any opposition with good line speed in defence. His game management skills are also in need of further development.
If Ronan O’Gara was deemed surplus to requirements despite the injury problems with Johnny Sexton, then Ian Madigan, who showed his prowess in attack in very difficult circumstances on Saturday, should have been entrusted with the No 10 jersey. Since that remarkable hat-trick in the opening game against Wales, Ireland have registered only two tries, both scored from three yards out in rumbles over the line by Craig Gilroy and Jamie Heaslip against Scotland and France.
Ireland’s lineout took another step backwards after recovering against England in appalling conditions. On three occasions, in very advantageous positions inside the Italian 22 in the opening quarter, Ireland turned over possession.
As a result they were never able to launch their maul which looked like yielding their best chance of registering a five-pointer.
If Ireland were ever going to win a game in Rome’s emotionally-charged arena, they had to build a lead and take the steam out of the hosts. That never looked like happening, even with a full complement of players.
Ireland need to carry out a root and branch review of how their challenge fell apart from the brilliance of that opening period against Wales. The loss of Sexton, in addition to those who had already been ruled out to that point, was the injury that tipped Ireland over the edge.
The fact that he ran operations in training all week up to the point of his foot injury on Thursday only served to highlight to the rest of the squad how much he was missed.
Heaslip has shipped a lot of criticism over the course of the championship but Richie McCaw would have struggled in this set up given the body blows the unrelenting sequence of injuries inflicted on the mindset of the players. That coupled with the decision to relieve O’Driscoll of the captaincy, to disregard the value O’Gara’s experience would bring to the table in such trying circumstances and several strange selection calls — not least Tom Court leapfrogging Dave Kilcoyne to start against Scotland before being jettisoned again just as quickly — created unwanted uncertainty within the squad and left many scratching their heads.
Declan Kidney is now certain to pay for those decisions by not having his contract renewed in June. The irony is that his successor, whoever that may be, will ultimately benefit from the fact that 10 new caps were blooded since November alone and in total, 34 players were exposed to the demands of Six Nations rugby over the course of the last five games.
Not only that but many had to do so in the most bizarre of circumstances. This last seven weeks could either make or break their international futures.
For the greatest of them all, last Saturday’s defeat may prove the worst possible way to sign off. Brian O’Driscoll must have felt a little lonely and isolated as he sat in the Irish dressing room after the game, surrounded by the next generation. Only he knows for certain if he will ever wear that famous No 13 jersey again but it appears unlikely.
All those he soldiered with on his international debut against Australia almost fourteen years ago have long since departed the scene while his closest lieutenants over the last decade — O’Gara, Gordon D’Arcy, Paul O’Connell and Tommy Bowe — are nowhere to be seen at the moment. Even Donncha O Callaghan had been reduced to the role of an unwanted extra as he warmed up with the team before the game but had no official seat on the bench. It was never meant to end like this.
