Almost a bridge too far for Irish

The sense of relief at Fletcher's Field on a sunny Saturday evening was palpable, not only that Ireland had salvaged a draw against Canada, but that the tour and especially the season was over at last.

No less than the shorts and T-shirt expatriates mingling amidst the beer tents after the game, the folks back home must be perplexed. One game on television shows Ireland rattling in 13 tries for a record win, but this was sandwiched by the tour downer of a partially self-inflicted defeat to the Pumas and the jaded awfulness if grittiness of this draw.

Based purely on results the tour cannot be deemed a success. "It's certainly not a failure," said Brian O'Brien adamantly. "We blooded seven new caps on the trip, conditions weren't ideal before we left - we left a couple of very good players behind - and hopefully the guys who came out will gain a bit of experience from it and will be better for it in the Six Nations. They certainly didn't do themselves justice here today, they're way better than that."

Yet quite what this tour achieved is a moot point. A few made a good impression, most notably Geordan Murphy, while others such as the defensively improved and dynamic Mike Mullins re-affirmed their worth.

Against that, quite a few didn't distinguish themselves, especially here in Markham last Saturday but does that, for example, suddenly make Peter Stringer and David Humphreys bad players? Hardly.

For sure, the exposure to the squad system and training, and even the matches, must be a useful investment of some sort. Ultimately though a 13th test at the end of a three-week tour and a 43-week season was almost a bridge too far. You wouldn't fancy Ireland against anybody anyone next week. Without a real break since the summer of `98, the Irish-based among them deserve their month-long holidays, and need them.

Both O'Brien and Gatland repeatedly cited fatigue as a mitigating factor, the coach saying that the Munster players looked particularly tired after their long campaign. Yet Saturday's malaise wasn't exclusively confined to those who had carried the heaviest load this season. Nor does it stack up entirely when set against the effort of England's supposedly even more knackered players in South Africa on Saturday , a particularly punishing, non-stop game lasting over 100 minutes.

Tiredness can be mental. Sore over losing to Argentina, bored out of their brains in New Hampshire, Ireland rolled up their sleeves and put some things to right against the USA. But perhaps last week, in the glow of a record win, amid the day off and the trips to Niagara Falls, the tourists took their eye off the ball a little. Perhaps subconsciously they were thinking about how much they would win by rather than winning it. Either way, the performance wasn't nearly professional enough.

Gatland admitted that the charge of "complacency" against the Irish was probably a fair call. Ireland had been too narrow in the first-half and had stopped talking. "Last week we couldn't stop them from talking and today they were pretty quiet."

Ronan O'Gara revealed that the team was very quiet when he came on after 54 minutes. "I don't know whether that was just me being very keen and mad to get in there. I wouldn't find myself usually, with my voice, over-riding other people. The lads just found themselves in a hard match and we needed to get out of a tricky situation and we didn't really. A draw isn't good enough."

"Results like this shouldn't be happening, I'm pxxxxx off. Were we 21-8 down at one stage? That's not good enough." We have to ask questions about it. We were nearly a full-strength team out there.

Canada's disappointment was altogether greater, not only because they were at home and had never been headed, but also because Ireland are the only Six Nation they haven't beaten. "Its still encouraging," said experienced prop Rod Snow. "We've just played one of the top eight nations in the world and came away with a draw, and last week put up a very respectable performance against the Springboks, so things are looking up."

In Snow's opinion, the introduction of Paul Wallace made a huge difference. "Without disrespect to the player I started the game against, Paul is just a tricky kind of guy to play against. He's not real big but technically he's exceptionally sound and job very awkward after that."

Of Ireland's general performance, Snow said: "I thought they started very slowly and they're going to sit and look at the video and wonder what they were doing for the first 20 minutes but that's the nature of the game, you've got to come out with all cylinders firing these days. So that's it then for another summer. Thirteen tests played, seven won, five lost and one drawn, with 54 tries scored (and 27 conceded); the positives just about outweighing the negatives. Rarely predictable, usually highly unpredictable. A record season for records and new landmarks. A rollercoaster culminating in a flat end.