At Rugby World Cups, Ireland have shown a certain zeal for disappointment of a particular kind.
The men's World Cups have been marked by successive quarter-final exits for Ireland, and the women's World Cup has ultimately repeated that trend.
Having squeaked by Australia and Japan in the opening round of pool games, Ireland set up a clash with France in what was a quarter-final in all but name. Sadly, a comfortable 21-5 victory for France sends Ireland into a positional play-off with Australia.
Speaking to Peter O'Reilly of T, former coach Phillip Doyle - who stood down from the role in 2014 having won a Grand Slam the year previous - said he is "devastated" at how the competition has panned out for Ireland, and did not hold back in his criticism of the set-up.
Doyle does not lay any blame at the feet of the players, but instead focuses on the entire set up.
If you look at the sources of our scores, it shows serious limitations. We've scored seven tries, six of them from pick-and-go, one from a lineout maul. You can't play World Cup rugby with one weapon. The chickens came home to roost on Thursday night.
Our skill levels have been chronically bad. The set piece has creaked repeatedly and the back-line attack has been very disappointing - no creation of space, poor execution. Our defence? None of the old line speed or threat identification. But I don't want the girls to get the blame for this. It's down to coaching and preparation.
Doyle claims that it has been unfair to ask the Irish players to play both 7s and 15s so close to a World Cup: Ireland lost three key players from the Six Nations clash with France earlier this year to a 7s tournament in Las Vegas.
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