Late Late changes cheapen Ireland’s call
The game was in its 80th minute and long since over as a contest when Guy Easterby and David Humphreys were sent on in place of Peter Stringer and Brian O'Driscoll; stoppage time was being played when Simon Best and Victor Costello got the call to take over from Reggie Corrigan and Anthony Foley. What useful purpose was served by going down this road?
None of the four replacements could in any way have affected the eventual outcome which had long been decided nor could they have benefited in the area of big match experience or anything of that nature.
The only logical conclusion one can arrive at is that the management wanted to hand out soft caps to the players involved for services rendered.
If so, they surely left it much too late, certainly in the case of replacing O'Driscoll who fully deserved to take a breather earlier in the proceedings given that he had been out of action for a full five weeks.
Such a move would have been perfectly understandable, but not at a point when only a few seconds remained.
As always, there were several other talking points after a big day at Lansdowne Road.
On a bitterly cold day, it seemed almost inhuman to the players to leave them out there shivering for a full 10 minutes while the preliminaries took place - the presidential salute, the introduction of the players to President McAleese, three anthems, a minute's silence for the victims of the Dublin bus tragedy all have their place in the scheme of things, but surely not at the expense of those primarily involved.
Little wonder then that the Welsh conceded a soft try within sixty seconds of the kick-off that took place at 3.10pm, 10 minutes behind schedule.
Things weren't a whole lot better at Murrayfield on Saturday where Clive Woodward believes the Scots tried to psyche them out of the game with all the pre-match entertainment.
Much of what Woodward had to say suggests he lives in the same paranoia-stricken world also inhabited by another knight of the realm, Alex Ferguson but the Six Nations committee might do well to heed Woodward's remark that "it took fifteen minutes from us leaving the dressing room to the game starting. I think that's wrong. We should come out together, have two national anthems and then off we go. This has got to stop."
I suspect some 44 players and three officials at Lansdowne Road on Sunday would agree. The Irish squad returned to their homes and families yesterday but only for 24 hours. They are due back in City West again this morning for a three day camp.
On Sunday they reassemble to prepare for the big one the clash with world champions England at Twickenham on Saturday week.
"Twickenham is a big battle but one we won't worry about until our next camp on Tuesday," said O'Sullivan.
"England got some lucky breaks against Scotland who certainly made them work all the way and that's the key. Make them work for eighty minutes and you make them earn their victory. That's the most important thing. If they're not on their game, you can get them."
Unfortunately, Ireland will be trying to do just that without the services of Donnacha O'Callaghan whose knee injury is likely to keep him out of action for three to four weeks.
O'Sullivan will be calling up a replacement with the veteran Ulsterman Gary Longwell the most likely choice.
Gordon D'Arcy will be receiving intensive treatment on his troublesome back but is expected to be okay while it is most unlikely that Geordan Murphy will be considered before the Italian game.
Girvan Dempsey continues to do little wrong - or inspiring - and will keep his place against the English.
Others "under pressure" including Shane Byrne and Keith Gleeson, answered their critics with big games against the Welsh in a kind of match well suited to their particular qualities.
Twickenham will be a different matter altogether and it behoves the Irish squad as a whole to heed the words of Welsh coach Steve Hansen: "Test rugby is called Test rugby because it's a test of your self belief, your courage and your skill."