‘We don’t know why we fell apart’

BEFORE a select group of Ireland players filed through the mixed zone of the Parc des Princes, their counterparts had sung and chanted loudly on their way to interviews with the huge South American media pack.

Elated and overjoyed, the Argentine’s happiness could not have contrasted more with the expressions of the Irish still coming to grips with elimination from the Rugby World Cup.

The ‘Golden Generation’ amongst whom Gordon D’Arcy has become a key figure in the renaissance of the game in Ireland seemed to be on a downward spiral.