A hollow, poignant day for Irish rugby. France's resounding 43-21 victory in the Rugby World Cup quarter-finals in Melbourne's Telstra Dome marked the end of Ireland's World Cup and the end of a legendary career.
In tears even before the end of the match, an emotional Keith Wood afterwards confirmed that his 31-year-old body could take no more and he would never play again.
Wood's emotional state had been offered as the reason for his tardy arrival at the post-match press conference, whereupon he sauntered in. A round of applause greeted his arrival.
"Sorry for keeping you," he smiled. "Yeah, I suppose it's the time. Yeah, that's it. Time to hang up the boots from, well, from all rugby," he confirmed hesitantly, as if he still was only 99 per cent sure.
"So it's a doubly sad day today."
The defeat, Ireland's fourth at the quarter-final stages in five World Cups, concluded their Australian odyssey and sent the Irish squad home today on flight BA018 from Melbourne, arriving in Dublin via Singapore at about 9 a.m. tomorrow morning.
In truth, Ireland were destined to be packing their bags from the moment French flanker Olivier Magne scored the game's first try in the third minute. With their new wonder kid, 20-year-old Frederic Michalak kicking every opportunity that came his way, France were 27-0 up by half-time and cruising.
After their one-point dramas over the previous weekends in beating Argentina and losing to Australia, Ireland hardly turned up yesterday. There were some honourable exceptions, not least the indefatigable, indestructible Wood and Brian O'Driscoll, whose two late tries earned Ireland a modicum of respect.
Burnt off the pitch and burnt on it, not much of a crowd turned up either. An attendance of 33,134 left almost 20,000 seats unoccupied in Melbourne's state-of-the-art Telstra Dome. The World Cup organisers, rightly lauded for their marketing up until now, had greedily priced the remaining tickets at about €180 and €120.
However, after a gluttonous feast of sport over the previous week in this Australian Rules and racing stronghold, where the spring meeting had left the jet set staggering by nightfall for a week, Melbourne had been sated.
It's reckoned that up to eight million Australians might have some connection with the old sod, but hopes of a locally backed "home game" for the Irish never materialised. The winners of this game were booked to fly on to Sydney at 12.30 p.m. local time today and to stay in the Swiss Grand Hotel on Bondi Beach.
Rumour has it that the French, who had been based in that hotel last week, had left some of their luggage there. Their confidence was well-founded.