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PARIS - The Celtic trio of Ireland, Scotland and Wales all once again failed to sit at rugby's top table after a series of dismal performances at the World Cup.
Ireland and Wales failed to make it into the quarter-finals, and neither of the three sides made it into the last four, repeating a pattern also seen over the three previous World Cups. Scotland were beaten semi-finalists in 1991.
Only Scotland managed to make it into the quarter-finals, narrowly beating a hapless Italy side 18-16 to secure their progression into a play-off match which they lost 19-13 to Argentina.
Ireland's Pool D was dubbed the eponymous "group of death", but pool rivals France and Argentina need not have worried too much after a string of terrible performances from last season's Triple Crown champions.
Eddie O'Sullivan's team scraped past minnows Namibia (32-17) and Georgia (14-10), but were soundly beaten by France (25-3), and Argentina (30-15) in the final pool game, to kill off any hopes of going forward.
Wales dismissed Canada (42-17) and Japan (72-18), played well for 20 minutes in their 32-20 loss against Australia, but then suffered a shock 38-34 defeat at the hands of a wonderful Fiji team that also performed magnificently in their eventual quarter-final loss to South Africa.
But of the three teams it was undoubtedly Ireland which disappointed the greatest.
Coming into the tournament boasting a host of experienced and high-profile players such as Brian O'Driscoll, Gordon D'Arcy and Paul O'Connell, there were high hopes that the Irish would qualify from their group and move forward as real semi-final contenders at the least.
But they were cruelly shown up as an aging team largely bereft of attacking ideas, lacking power and pace, with no strength in depth and all too easily sucked into the wilting upfront battles favoured by lesser teams like Namibia and Georgia.
In a decision that baffled most observers, Irish coach O'Sullivan was handed a new four-year contract before the World Cup had even begun.
He will now surely have his work cut out to rid the team of the dead wood ahead of next season's Six Nations and turn around what seemed a hopelessly dispirited side after their premature exit.
One coach who was not so lucky was Wales' Gareth Jenkins, who went into the tournament under the sword of Damocles and duly paid for his disastrous record of six wins from 20 Tests in his 17 months in charge.
Only two of those wins came against major nations - England in the Six Nations to avoid the wooden spoon, and a jet-lagged, under-prepared Argentina in a warm-up game for the World Cup.
The Welsh Rugby Union is on the lookout for a replacement, backs coach Nigel Davies having been named caretaker for the meantime, with many suggesting a foreigner who carries no baggage and would be able to deliver some unpalatable truths about the breakdown of the development of elite players in Wales.
Of all the excuses proferred up by players and officials after their dismal showings, that of Scotland coach Frank Hadden has to take the biscuit.
"We are very proud of our record of going to every single World Cup quarter-final," acknowledged Hadden, whose team moved into the last eight from arguably - the All Blacks aside - the easiest pool filled out by Italy, Portugal and Romania (the latter two beaten 56-10 and 42-0 by the Scots).
"We are one of only five countries in the world that has done that and yet Madagascar has more people playing rugby than we have."
The value of debating such a banal argument has no merit given Scotland's long rugby history and Madagascar's status as a fast-developing minnow - they recently beat previous World Cup participants Ivory Coast and Zimbabwe.
And while a decline in playing numbers remains a serious issue for rugby administrators in Ireland and Scotland, the roots of the decline of playing standards in the Celtic nations are set far deeper than that.
All three teams seemed to lack the physicality needed to be competitive for top-level rugby against major Test-playing nations.
This absent attribute along with an oft-inferior mental mind-set are sadly echoed week in week out in the general playing standards of the Celtic League.
The 10-team league draws four provinces from Wales (Cardiff Blues, Llanelli Scarlets, Newport Gwent Dragons and the Ospreys), four from Ireland (Connacht, Leinster, Munster and Ulster) and only two from Scotland (Edinburgh and Glasgow Warriors) after the Border Reivers were disbanded at the end of last season.
While Llanelli, Munster and Leinster all have their moments in the European Cup, the performances of the Celtic provinces as a whole rank as very disappointing.
"We have had a fair bit of upheaval in Scottish rugby over the last few years and we haven't taken smoothly to professionalism," Hadden acknowledged.
But rugby union turned professional a full 12 years ago, and a new hard-nosed coaching and training ethos must be embraced within the Celtic trio of nations to make them credible forces on the world stage again.
- AFP
