On the face of it, Ireland's inability to make the semi-final of the World Cup means 2015 will go down as a failure. Then you consider that Ireland were the two-time Six Nations champions coming into the tournament, had been ranked as high as second in the world just a month previous, and had no-one ranked higher than sixth to face before the semi-final, and it should be a colossal failure.
Granted, injuries to our big leaders didn't help - and Ireland have apparently been given a free pass. But what do the other countries - who had been tipping Ireland pre-tournament - make of our performances?
Chris Rattue of the New Zealand Herald was highly critical of nearly every countries efforts in this tournament. France were "pathetic", England "play like draft horses", and South Africa have "regressed".
It's almost unnerving then that the main positive to any country was given to Ireland. It's Rattue's opinion that when we have our big players we aren't to be treated like little people anymore:
Ireland suffered key injuries, but they still don't truly believe. They aren't rugby's little people. But the back up players probably are unfortunately.
Essentially, when we don't lose O'Connell, O'Mahony, Sexton, O'Brien, and Payne we believe. But despite all our depth, our back-up players don't have the belief to get the job done.
We now have four years to get that belief into our entire squad. But we'll have to do it without O'Connell, and without the easiest World Cup draw we will ever have.
[New Zealand Herald]
See Also: The security Guard Overreaction Which Led To Sonny Bill Giving Away His World Cup Medal
Picture credit: Stephen McCarthy / SPORTSFILE
