The last play of the game, and Brian O'Driscoll is wriggling over the line for his second consolation try. Keith Wood cannot even look. He is hunched over, on one knee, having spent every last drop of his energy, over the course of this game, over this tournament, over the last year in getting here, and over the last eight years for his country. It was all over now, and it had hit him. Hard.

Had there been any doubts that he was going to call it a day, give his battered body a rest for good and sink back into the arms of Nicola and Alexander, it ebbed away at that heartbreaking moment.

"I was pretty emotional, to use that oft-used word," he explained later, a little sheepishly. "It didn't hit me until the end of the match. I was between floods (of tears) and more floods."

We had been told to wait for the news, and he kept the assembled media throng waiting before his late arrival at the Irish press conference. Coach Eddie O'Sullivan was in the middle of complimenting him, explaining his captain's emotional state, adding: "He's been through hell, and high water, to get here. Nobody has put more into this World Cup, and I mean nobody."

Then, bang on cue, Wood sauntered in, beads of perspiration and water on his famous bald dome, and tieless. Who writes this man's script?

Alas, there would be no fairytale ending. That's usually the way, but he and Ireland deserved a better finale for a World Cup quarter-final than this largely limp display.

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 hesitatingly, as if he still were only 99 per cent sure. "So it's a doubly sad day today."

Pause. Nobody seemed sure what to ask him next.

"I knew that I was going to retire at the end of whatever Ireland's involvement was, but I've had lots of great days. I have to be candid, I suppose - Lions were fantastic. But I think being involved in this World Cup, in this particular set-up, with this group of players was very special.

"I would have liked to have been here for another couple of weeks, but this has been a highlight. It's unfortunate that it ends on such a downer, but such is life."

The first French player he shook hands with, fittingly, was that other near-retiree, Fabien Galthie. The pair embraced at length.

"I gave him my sincere wishes that it's he that retires with the trophy. We've known each other for a long, long time. We've had a lot of good days and bad days on either side, and it would do that man justice if he walks away with the World Cup at the end of it.

"It is a simple thing. My desire is still there. I'd like to play for another 10 years if I had the chance. The heart is willing, the head is willing, (but) the body has had enough and I don't ever want to be in the situation where my standard falls and I slip away in poor play, or retire by having another bad shoulder injury.

"To be honest, the injury to the shoulder is an injury that's waiting to happen and I'm lucky to get out before I make an absolute mess of it.

"I've been unbelievably fortunate and privileged to have played so long for my country."

There was hardly a dry eye in the place. Wood said he would slip away from the game now for a while, maintaining he didn't have the temperament to be a coach.

"I'll get back to it in some place or in some form, because I fairly obviously love it an awful lot."

O'Sullivan repeated his view that Wood constitutes "the identikit of a professional rugby player, a man who pursues his profession as assiduously as he can to become the best player he can be. I think we've seen the retirement of a legend of the game of rugby and I don't think he can be replaced."

As Wood bade adieu, the French team manager Joe Maso stretched his right hand out through reporters who had surrounded Wood.

"Thank you," he said, clasping him now with both hands and nodding. "Well done and good luck. We will have a beer later."

As Maso turned to the podium for the beginning of the French press conference, Wood smiled and shouted after him. "Go far, go far."

The French coach Bernard Laporte quipped: "We prefer that it was him and not Galthie who retired today, but we have to congratulate him for this game and for all his career. We want to congratulate him for all that he did for rugby. He is a great man and France salutes him."

After the press conference, Galthie expressed his feelings. "Keith Wood has been an exceptional player. He put Irish rugby at an extra level and to do what he did in his position, as a hooker, was absolutely fantastic. But we have also to talk about the man. He has been the tete de proue (the ship's figurehead) of Irish rugby for 10 years. I have got huge respect for him."

For pretty much everyone, it seems, it was a pleasure knowing Wood even just a little.

Semi-finals

Next Saturday: New Zealand v Australia, Sydney, 9.0 a.m. (Irish time)

Next Sunday: France v England, Sydney, 9.0 a.m. (Irish time)

Third place play-off

Thursday, November 20th: Sydney, 9.0 a.m. (Irish time)

Final

Saturday, November 22nd: Sydney, 9.0 a.m. (Irish time)