KEY POINTS:
Twenty-four hours after one of the lowest points in their rugby history, the Irish are still trying to fathom where it all went wrong.
If they're looking for answers from under-siege coach Eddie O'Sullivan, then they're out of luck.
O'Sullivan looked a broken man after his side crashed out of the World Cup, hammered 30-15 by Pool D winners Argentina, and offered neither excuses nor explanations as to why his team under-performed so badly.
Ireland came into this tournament with high hopes after missing out on this year's Six Nations on points difference only.
"We struggled to find the form of the Six Nations," O'Sullivan admitted. "Maybe we needed more rugby."
That has been a common reprise of the Northern Hemisphere teams which feel the way the season has been structured has helped the teams who have recently come off tough Tri-Nations campaigns.
However, Argentina's build-up to this World Cup was just as flimsy, if not more, with a dreadful performance against Wales followed by two Mickey Mouse games, including one against a Belgium XV.
The simple fact was Argentina was a better team than Ireland, had a better game plan, and better players to execute it.
They kept pegging back Ireland with raking kicks, knowing that to score the four tries required, Ireland would have to try to run it back at them. They forced Ireland into mistakes and capitalised with two tries, a couple of penalties to Leinster-based Felipe Contepomi and three drop goals by Juan Martin Hernandez.
Ireland's calamitous exit - they also lost 25-3 to France and came within a whisker of losing to Georgia - could have another unfortunate spin-off for O'Sullivan. He was considered a certainty to take the Lions to South Africa in 2009 but will need to redeem himself in next year's Six Nations.
The Irish Rugby Football Union last month extended his contract through to the end of the 2012 Six Nations.
O'Sullivan, 48, said he had no intention of deserting his post and with the contract in his possession it would be a messy, costly business for the IRFU to shift him.
"There are a lot of good players in this side. We created a lot of expectation in coming here. We haven't lived up to it," he said.
What he needs to be able to tell his supporters and employers is, why?
