No point looking back in anger

IRELAND have had to absorb painful lessons over the course of the last four weeks and it remains to be seen if recent events will sharpen their World Cup appetite for battle or kill their enthusiasm for the fight.

Losing all four warm-up games was never on the agenda and not something anyone anticipated. Having finished the season as Europe’s highest ranked side (fourth), Ireland have now plummeted to eighth in the IRB rankings. In addition, of the squad selected only a week ago, David Wallace has already been lost to the cause while Tommy Bowe, Rob Kearney, Brian O’Driscoll, Sean O’Brien, Jerry Flannery, Cian Healy, Gordon D’Arcy and Jamie Heaslip are either short on game time or carrying an injury. That has to be a serious concern.

The type of intensity generated by Australia and New Zealand last weekend has been developed over the course of a long hard season. Now the challenge facing Declan Kidney and the Irish side is how to set about matching that intensity when they face the Wallabies in less than three weeks time.