Irish stew on missed opportunities

When Warren Gatland looked at the Lansdowne Road scoreboard four years ago, he saw an equation that made him odds on to become the first Irish coach to claim victory against the All Blacks.

Sadly for Gatland, most of his players took the same view. At 21-7 up with 15 minutes to go, they thought they had already secured their place in immortality. The focus lifted for just a second and that was enough for the All Blacks to blow the Irish away in a four-try blitz.

It was also enough to blow Gatland out of office. The blow-in was blown out a month later when the Irish Rugby Union inexplicably decided not to renew his contract.

It was rough justice. Gatland had steered Ireland to second in the Six Nations. Then he went within a whisker of beating the All Blacks in November 2001. It might still have been a famous night if referee Andre Watson hadn't taken such a lenient view of a retreating Norm Maxwell interfering with an Irish pass just yards from his own line.

As Gatland remembers, though, it wasn't a dodgy call from Watson that killed Ireland's chances. It was a lack of composure in the final quarter.

"There were players who didn't follow the game structure. It was probably a lack of belief. We put ourselves in a situation where guys were looking at the clock after 60 minutes and started thinking we shouldn't be in this situation. We had them rattled and I remember Brian O'Driscoll kicked one ball away, then another out on the full which he normally wouldn't have done. Those weren't the calls at the time and he was one of the players we needed to rely on, even though he was pretty young.

"It was our feeling that we had a good opportunity. The All Blacks had left a few key players behind and had a few youngsters playing their first tests. Our team was pretty experienced, they'd been playing well."

Despite the result, the Irish walked away from Lansdowne Road with a renewed belief. The following year they hammered Wales to end Graham Henry's tenure as coach and tore apart Scotland and Italy in the Six Nations. Then in June, in Dunedin, they again came close to that elusive first win against the All Blacks [they lost 15-6].

They did so without Gatland, who was released in December 2001. "About a month after the All Black game my contract was up. It was a bit bizarre. I felt we'd played well that day, we had a good Six Nations and I'd been in the job for four years. We had a review and it went well. Then I had another meeting and it was a short conversation - it was pretty much thanks for all you've done for Irish rugby but we're not renewing your contract."

But, for all the progress, there was a theme to Ireland's results. They couldn't make the big breakthrough and beat one of the top sides.

England and France were scalps they couldn't bag. At the World Cup in 2003, Ireland were a point away from beating Australia. Yet that one point had a major bearing. If they'd won, they would have played Scotland in the quarter-finals. Instead they met a rampant French team who showed no mercy.

From that day in Dublin four years ago, Ireland have remained the nearly men of world rugby and Gatland has his own theory why.

"One of the frustrations was that Ireland had shied away from the bigger teams. They would play the likes of the All Blacks or South Africa and then have two easier games, whereas England would play both New Zealand and South Africa and then also Australia. My argument was that the only way for a nation like Ireland to improve was to play as many big teams as they could.

"They would talk about beating the Southern Hemisphere teams. But there weren't enough games against them. We'd play against the All Blacks for 60 minutes then lose. The next week you wanted to play another big nation so you could learn from your mistakes and we just didn't get enough of that."

Now there is a sense that Ireland failed to ride the big wave when they had the chance. The irrepressible Keith Wood is no longer charging around like a demented Uncle Fester. Peter Clohessy, the only man in Ireland who doesn't have to lock his car because of his fearsome reputation, has joined Wood in retirement.

Many who remain clad in emerald green should think harder about retirement. John Hayes is nowhere near good enough to be classed as a poor man's Clohessy at prop while hooker Shane Byrne's mullet impresses more than his rugby.

The inside pairing of Peter Stringer and Ronan O'Gara looks short of flair to be a force at this level while wing Denis Hickie and fullback Geordan Murphy gave the impression when they came out with the Lions that they could both run all day, just not with any particular purpose. The non-involvement of lock Paul O'Connell and Brian O'Driscoll weakens the Irish further.

The next generation of players has not materialised. The promise of four years ago has evaporated.

"I think Eddie O'Sullivan [Ireland coach] has been caught between a rock and a hard place," said Gatland. "They went through to the World Cup with an experienced team and everyone was talking last season about Ireland winning a Grand Slam.

"But they probably had a number of players coming to the end of their international careers. They are going through a transitional period at the moment. They rely pretty heavily on Munster being successful and they're not going that well. That is a bit of a concern. They need the four provinces going reasonably well and, to be honest, they are going to find it quite tough against the All Blacks.

"I think the initial feeling from the All Blacks was that their first two games were going to be the toughest. But I think England will be one of the tougher games, given the numbers in their player base. They are in a good position. They are not being talked up. The Lions didn't go well and England didn't have a great Six Nations so they will be quite happy to prepare without expectation."

The Irish still carry expectation and it's a burden they look increasingly uncomfortable trying to manage.

- HERALD ON SUNDAY