Pool A Ireland v Australia MatchStatistics: Plucky losers. Gallant losers. Unlucky losers. Ireland's fate in sport? Eddie O'Sullivan hates the terminology, understandably so, but until Irish sports teams or individuals start winning big ones like this - one they could and possibly should have won - then the stereotyping will remain.
Not that one can easily criticise such a Herculean effort. To get within a point of the holders and hosts required Ireland's best performance of the season, indeed in some time. At a time, early in the second half when Australia went 14-6 up, history and tradition had taught us they would up a gear and kick on. Instead it was Ireland.
There had been a growing, palpable force about Ireland's improving first-half display as well, but thereafter the Irish pack utterly eclipsed the Wallaby forwards. It was sheer force of personality and will as much the technical excellence of the pack, in the lineout especially, and leading from the front was the indefatigable, inexhaustible spirit of Keith Wood.
He led, others followed, not least Paul O'Connell. It's scary to think he's just turned 24 and is effectively in his first full season of Test rugby. Seven lineout takes, a huge, ever-willing, ultra-physical workrate, he was probably man of the match and has arguably been Ireland's player of the tournament. Simon Easterby wasn't far behind; a half-dozen lineout takes, tackling as big as ever and making his presence felt at the breakdown. None of the pack could be faulted and the building block, again, was the superb Irish lineout.
Expertly prepared, more alert, more flexible, quicker thinking, not alone did it eat into Australia's, it compelled the Wallabies to seek stock ball at the front. And the base for their game is their lineout. No lineout, no game.
As a result primarily of this, there were clear signs of panic in the pressure-induced mistakes and the welter of replacements, with only two backs finishing the game in the positions they started.
At a time when it really felt there was a compelling, irresistible force about the Irish performance, ultimately Ireland had three lineout platforms in the endgame to manufacture a score when a point behind. With the first, David Humphreys was desperately unlucky to see his sweetly struck 45-metre drop-goal effort fade fractionally wide. With the second he overcooked an up-and-under. With the third, Ireland ought to have explored a maul option, or close-in target runners, or at any rate the banker Kevin Maggs up the middle. One can well imagine it's what the Wallabies would have done.
The last option was to go wide and see Shane Horgan go outside Lote Tuqiri and be tackled into touch. Ireland never saw the ball again as the Wallabies recycled the leather to run down the clock, save for Girvan Dempsey (who hardly took the ball into contact all night) returning a kick to the middle of the pitch.
Hence the more this game recedes into the rear-view mirror, the more this Irish team will lament it as another one that got away, and the more it will dawn that these Wallabies were there for the taking.
Their locks were eclipsed first by O'Connell and O'Kelly, then their front row, and ultimately only George Smith, who has reinvented himself as an all-round back rower, and the straight running David Lyons (curiously replaced) showed up.
Stephen Larkham looked dangerous but made two of the game's costliest errors of judgment, the midfield didn't threaten, Joe Roff has never looked worse, Wendell Sailor was exposed after being cleverly targeted and Mat Rogers fumbled his lines again under pressure.
A large chunk of credit, though, to Ireland for helping to make all this happen.
Privately, Irish players spoke of it being another grimly reflective night on Saturday in Melbourne, and deep down they'll feel they blew a great chance.
Of course, one could, as O'Sullivan said, wreck one's head lamenting the many important moments in the game which might have panned out differently, and his estimation that there were about 50 of them probably wasn't such an exaggeration.
Ireland did actually make a good start from the kick-off, but O'Gara was short from long-range and Australia took the initiative. You probably had to be in the Telstra Dome to appreciate how well they co-ordinated the cross-kick ploy which saw Matt Burke rise and tap down for Wendell Sailor to gather running from deep. Ireland were stretched thereafter, and Shane Horgan came in off his wing to leave George Smith an untroubled run to the line.
Although O'Gara missed another penalty and a drop-goal, Elton Flatley missed one out of two also. The Australian defence was keeping its shape better and Ireland were struggling to make incisions, but the pack's momentum and two O'Gara penalties had inched Ireland back into the game at 11-6, whereupon Jonathan Kaplan's intervention in indicating a reverse penalty against Ireland and the binning of Horgan as well as Rogers was a big, big call.
O'Gara also missed another difficult, but kickable penalty after Flatley had made it 14-6, whereupon the game turned on Anthony Foley's adroit reaction catch, Stringer's clever box kick and Larkham's moment of lunacy in taking a quick throw which had Red Cross written all over it as Roff knocked on. That was worth seven points thanks to O'Gara's touchline conversion of Kelly's blindside transfer and O'Driscoll's brilliantly taken try through the eye of a touchline needle in fending off Sailor and Flatley.
But following another Flatley penalty, the force was undeniably with Ireland. Thrice they had penalty chances to reduce the lead to a point, Stringer tapping the first time and twice they opted for attacking set-pieces before O'Driscoll's drop-goal.
Should calmer heads have prevailed? In mitigation, as Declan Kidney observed, "that takes a degree of courage" and it's good, in one sense, to see Irish players having the belief to make quick, on-field decisions. It was also a giant bear pit down there.
"Guys I can hardly hear 'cos of the noise from the crowd," said Paddy O'Brien by link-up to his touch judges, "but keep trying."
And the noise, like the rugby, was increasingly dominated by Ireland. They still had platforms to take the lead, and Humphreys was still shaking his head yesterday and lamenting he possibly struck his drop-goal effort too well. But then George Gregan booted that last-kick penalty over the touchline; who's to say Australia wouldn't have come back downfield and O'Brien have awarded them a late penalty anyway?
So, just France, England and the All Blacks, then, between Ireland and the World Cup.
SCORING SEQUENCE: 10 mins Gregan drop goal 3-0; 13 mins: Smith try 8-0; 16 mins: O'Gara pen 8-3; 19 mins: Flatley pen 11-3; 33 mins: O'Gara pen 11-6; (half-time 11-6); 45 mins Flatley pen 14-6; 50 mins: O'Driscoll try, O'Gara con 14-13; 56 mins: Flatley pen 17-13; 74 mins: O'Driscoll drop goal 17-16.
AUSTRALIA: M Rogers (Southern Districts); W Sailor (Gold Coast), M Burke (Eastwood), E Flatley (Brothers), J Roff (Canberra); S Larkham (ACT), G Gregan (Randwick); B Young (Eastwood), B Cannon (Sydney University), B Darwin (Northern Suburbs), D Giffin (Sunnybank), N Sharpe (University), G Smith (Manly), D Lyons (Sydney University), P Waugh (Sydney University). Replacements: _ A Baxter (Northern Suburbs) for Darwin (51 mins), M Cockbain (GPS) for Lyons (63 mins), D Vickerman (Sydney University) for Giffin, L Tuqiri (West Harbour) for Burke (both 68 mins), M Giteau (Canberra) for Larkham (74 mins), J Paul (Eastwood) for Cannon (80 mins). Sinbinned: Rogers (40-50 mins)
IRELAND: G Dempsey (Leinster); S Horgan (Leinster/Lansdowne), B O'Driscoll (Leinster), K Maggs (Bath), D Hickie (Leinster); R O'Gara (Munster), P Stringer (Munster); R Corrigan (Leinster), K Wood (Munster), J Hayes (Munster), M O'Kelly (Leinster), P O'Connell (Munster), S Easterby (Llanelli), A Foley (Munster), K Gleeson (Leinster). Replacements: D O'Callaghan (Munster) for O'Kelly (56-65 mins) and for O'Connell (84 mins); E Miller (Leinster) for Maggs (59-63mins) and for Foley (80 mins); M Horan (Munster) for Corrigan (75 mins), D Humphreys (Ulster) for O'Gara (68 mins). Sinbinned: Horgan (40-50 mins).
Referee: P O'Brien (New Zealand).
