World Cup Rugby-France defeats Ireland

Tonight Eddie O'Sullivan appeared to rest some of the responsibility for Ireland's defeat on referee Chris White's shoulders. White had an excellent game and was consistent.

Unfortunately for Eddie reasons for Ireland's defeat rest closer to home. In the four year period leading up to this World Cup he has been slow to introduce new players. He was not prepared to introduce too many new players and risk criticism. This has allowed him to maintain a high success rate. Good for the ego but useless for the future development of the International squad. Australia, New Zealand and South Africa have experimented. They are now reaping the benefits of such a policy.

Eddie's selection policy is open to question. He dropped the highly talented Geordan Murphy and Denis Hickey. Why?

Tonight he he made his first substitutions in the 72nd minute. This was a pointless exercise as it was too late to influence the outcome. Contrast this with the policy adopted by France. The first strength Irish team has now played its third match in the World Cup- a suicidal policy.

Defence alignments left much to be desired. This has been glaringly obvious for some time. Why was this not rectified? Similarly with the forwards. Likewise the line out was a mess.

Flair has been squeezed out of the team to be replaced by a robotic approach. It is time to end this madness.