Ireland's World Cup dream ended on a truly depressing note yesterday when a rampant French side exposed the gulf in standards that exists at the highest levels of rugby union.
Hopes that Ireland had managed to bridge that gap in recent years proved to be nothing more than wishful thinking as France demolished Ireland in all facets of the game in their Melbourne quarter-final. Although the French may be the form team of the tournament, it was bitterly disappointing for the many supporters who travelled to Australia and hundreds of thousands who watched on television to see an Irish side completely outplayed, particularly after last weekend's heartening performance against Australia. The mini Irish revival in the second half of yesterday's game should not blind anyone to the fact that France had by then turned their attention to next weekend's semi-final against England.
Ireland are left to ponder what progress, if any, they have made at this World Cup. The immediate objective of qualifying for the last eight of the tournament was negotiated with a nervous one point win over Argentina, which at least ensured that the team does not have to pre-qualify for the 2007 tournament. But beyond that, Ireland will only have the memory of their epic encounter with Australia, a game that will be recalled in years to come as much for an opportunity spurned by Ireland as for the quality of their display.
There is no question that the fortunes of Irish rugby have improved since the introduction of professionalism and that the current squad has delivered some famous one-off performances. But, essentially, the Irish team is still some way off achieving the consistency of performance required to join the top division of New Zealand, England, France and Australia. Outstanding individual players like Keith Wood, who has made an enormous contribution to Irish rugby, and Brian O'Driscoll cannot single-handedly take on the best teams in the world.
The reality is that rugby ranks way behind Gaelic football, hurling and soccer in terms of playing numbers in Ireland and there is no reason why the national team should compete consistently with the top countries until that imbalance is seriously addressed. The IRFU has met some of the difficult challenges facing the sport in recent years but the ultimate challenge for the union must be to broaden the player base. Long overdue inroads have been made by the union to develop rugby outside of its traditional private school structure but these must be multiplied many times if the game is to have any chance of prospering and delivering a generation of players ready to take Ireland to the next level of the international game.