Outclassed, outmuscled and out of the picture

OUT of the picture, out of the frame. At half-time last Saturday the first TV commercial that aired on the big screen Saturday in Lansdowne Road blared that out, an appropriate soundtrack for underwhelmed Irish fans; their team was 25-0 down at that point, and as the old saying goes, lucky to get nil.

The All Blacks racked up a 45-7 win with their ‘second string.’ Second string? When they settle on their first XV they’ll be tasty.

Saturday had more than a hint of the surreal about it from the start. The fire under the North Terrace meant the feng shui in Lansdowne Road was all wrong for a start; the bare ribs of terrace, studded with a dozen stewards’ reflective jackets, meant over 7,000 voices were out of the sound mix on a day Ireland needed every larynx.