Outgunned and outmanoeuvred

It hurts to say it, but last Sunday Ireland were mercilessly blown away by a superior outfit who exploited our weaknesses to superb effect

An injured Paul O’Connell (second right) looks on as Ireland are trounced by Argentina last Sunday Pic: Getty

Aweek on, the pain of losing to Argentina doesn’t seem to be going away. Should Ireland be playing today in the semi-final of the Rugby World Cup against Australia? That was the plan, right? We had it all mapped out – beat Argentina, and then on to the match-up we all wanted: Joe Schmidt versus Michael Cheika.

We can’t be too upset. Ireland simply didn’t deserve to beat a truly magnificent Argentinian team ...