The post mortem continues.
The body of Ireland’s World Cup dream is barely cold and yet the scalpels are being sharpened to find out where it all went wrong after the 43-20 loss to Argentina.
Ireland’s poor start saw them trail 17-0 after the opening quarter and despite a second half revival Joe Schmidt’s side were beaten by the better team on the day.
Ireland came into the game off the back of winning a second Six Nations title in a row but with a mixed showing in the warm-up games.
Argentina have been playing in the Rugby Championship since 2012 while they have also employed a number of rugby consultants, including Graham Henry, to develop their game.
Speaking on ITV’s coverage, Brian O’Driscoll identified the fiercer competition against fellow southern hemisphere sides as key to Argentina’s win:
“Argentina have shown the gulf in class between the northern and southern hemisphere and how much the Rugby Championship has worked in their favour.”
“They piggy-backed on their first win over the Springboks in Johannesburg earlier this year and they’ve put together a nice World Cup and they’ll give Australia or Scotland a good run for their money in the semi-final.”
