Noisy blip is silent on the real issue

Genesis Report:The more Gerry Thornley looks at the World Cup review and its aftermath the more convinced he is the IRFU powerbrokers are trying to buy time

As one of the letter-writers to this paper on the vexed subject of Ireland's ignominious World Cup campaign pointed out, it's a hard question that demands hard answers. And among the most striking aspects of the review just this week presented to the union are the questions that weren't even asked, as well as those responses selectively passed on to the IRFU Executive Committee on Monday evening and in turn to the media by dint of the union's statement that night. The net effect has been to leave still as many questions as answers.

The review never addressed one of the most pertinent issues of all, namely the actual coaching of the Irish team/squad. While all manner of fringe details - from the accommodation to the food to the physiotherapy - were looked into, the one area that needed examination more than any other was conspicuous by its absence.

Attributing fault, admitted Brian Porteous at the outset of his verbal presentation to the 22-man Executive Committee at tea-time on Monday evening, was not part of his brief. He also said his presentation was only a (verbal) summary of his findings, so what the media and the public received was therefore a synopsis of a synopsis.

Of course, when one dug a little deeper the causes for Ireland's string of poor performances in the three warm-up games as well as the four pool games went a lot further than that, and the very lack of obvious improvements in performance rather ridicules the notion that it was all down to insufficient match practice.

While that was a factor, to find a more detailed explanation one might as well go back to the very start.

The elite XV who started the memorable win against England in the Six Nations and were excused duty from the tour of Argentina went into pre-season conditioning training for seven weeks prior to the five-week build-up to the World Cup proper. The rest of the initial 50-man squad began their pre-season training two weeks after the frontline XV. They were based with their provinces in that time, although this seven/five-week build-up contained two treks to Poland and three- or four-day rests afterwards.

In any event, by the time they were handed over to the national management, the players - both the Genesis review and Philip Browne (in his doorstep radio and television interviews outside 62 Lansdowne Road on Tuesday morning) confirmed - had never been in better condition.

And this is where we enter what is akin to the Bermuda Triangle of the whole World Cup campaign: the ensuing five weeks before the eventual World Cup squad departed to France, and the four weeks in competition between Bordeaux and Paris.

The squad of 50 initially spent two weeks in camp prior to the opening warm-up match against Scotland, on foot of which it was to be trimmed down to the chosen 30 for the World Cup the following morning.

One can only imagine the intensity of the training with that kind of carrot/disappointment looming for at least half the entire squad, and how difficult it must have been to prepare a side featuring only two of the first-choice XV (apparently at their insistence), namely Brian O'Driscoll and Paul O'Connell, against the Scots.

Alarm bells rang after that limp and sluggish 31-21 defeat, all the more so as the Scots looked physically more explosive in the collisions.

The sense of panic among management and squad increased with the 42-6 win over Bayonne in which O'Driscoll suffered a fractured cheekbone, which sidelined him for the next fortnight.

This was the longest unbroken period O'Sullivan and the management had ever had with an Ireland squad, and the Irish set-up - because of O'Sullivan's gradually increased power and his persona - operates very much as an island in which the head coach wields unusual influence.

Graham Henry and the entire All Blacks management/coaching staff regularly had weekend seminars with the entire management staffs of the Super 14 franchises and the provincial teams to ensure they were all operating according to similar guidelines. In his first week as Wales coach, Warren Gatland met with all the coaches of the Welsh regional sides to outline common goals and how best they could work together to achieve them.

One of the major problems in Irish rugby over the last four-year cycle is that little such dialogue has existed between the provinces and the national set-up, in large part because, it is widely believed, O'Sullivan seldom if ever talks to Declan Kidney or Michael Cheika or David Knox.

As an aside, the review suggested Ireland's strategic goals were not aligned with those of the provinces. Lest the provinces become even more subservient to the needs of the national team on foot of this conclusion, one would venture that nothing did more for Ireland's well-being than Munster's Heineken European Cup triumph two seasons ago.

Porteous also suggested the integration of the elite-performance strategy was below good practice, ie, that the provincial academies, the High Performance Unit (much derided and profligate given an expenditure estimated at €3 million) and provinces were not co-ordinated.

Here, he also concluded there were issues of overall leadership and national/provincial integration as well as issues of communication with the provincial coaches.

In any event, when Ireland again underperformed in their opening pool match, against Namibia, they had a six-day turnaround before playing Georgia in Bordeaux.

When questioned after his presentation to the Executive Committee on Monday evening, Porteous identified two other reasons in addition to the lack of sufficient match practice in the build-up to the World Cup, namely a shortage of players and the leadership response to events as they unfolded.

O'Sullivan reverted to type and made only one change in personnel, recalling the fit-again Shane Horgan. The team having been announced on the Monday prior to training, they trained again on the Tuesday and Thursday before a "captain's run" on the Friday. The Tuesday session was, according to one player, "one of the hardest training sessions of my life".

Another player told me yesterday, "It was fairly full-on alright." This player does add that the decision to crank up the contact work was partly at the behest of the leading players. But that's not unique. Players can be their own worst enemies. "Let's work harder," was an obvious response, especially from players with a high-achieving profile and high expectations. Very often it is a coach's duty to protect them from themselves.

The intensified training continued in light of the 14-10 win over Georgia and the 25-3 defeat to France before the sadly inevitable denouement against Argentina.

Interestingly, Ireland's best performer that day was probably O'Driscoll, who scored one try and set up the other for Geordan Murphy. O'Driscoll, you will recall, was sidelined for the last two weeks of camp prior to departing for France.

After the World Cup, Ulster, Leinster and Munster were each presented with players several kilos lighter than when they had finished their pre-season conditioning with them. One player, rather alarmingly, was nine kilos lighter.

There is a world of difference between being overtrained on the practice ground and training smarter.

It is instructive to contrast this with Munster's workload after the hard-earned win away to Llanelli on that stormy night a couple of weeks ago in southwest Wales prior to the return fixture six days later.

The next day, Sunday, they had a half-hour recovery session in the pool. They were granted the Monday off. On Tuesday morning they had about an hour's technical work indoors, working on skills with the forwards doing some lineout work, followed by a speed session in the afternoon. On Wednesday they had one relatively light indoor session of less than an hour and a half. Thursday was another day off, followed by the lightest of captain's runs on the Friday, as much a walk around Thomond Park for the players to reacquaint themselves with the half-built ground and for Ronan O'Gara and the kickers to do some kicking practice.

In total therefore, they did about two-and-a-half hours on-field training in the entire week, despite an eight-day turnaround as distinct from the more intense six-day gap between Ireland's opening two pool matches.

While Porteous apparently concluded there were differences of opinion with regard to fitness, he said there were issues relating to tiredness and weight loss, and, unsurprisingly, also the balance between work and relaxation.

As for the recommendations, we now know that the appointment of a psychologist had long since been earmarked and even filled, which raises serious questions as to how pertinent this review was in relation to the recommendations.

When Browne went on radio and television claiming the appointment of a backs coach was in response to the players' response, this too was effectively refuted by the Irish Rugby Union Players' Association yesterday, on foot of their finally receiving a written copy of the review.

Niall Woods, CEO of IRUPA, commented that a preliminary perusal of the Genesis Report contradicts comments attributed to the IRFU in the press that the players were in the forefront of advocating the creation of a new role of support manager to the national coach.

He added, however, "the players are nonetheless supportive of the IRFU recommendation to appoint such a manager. The players believe that this appointment should only be made after consultation with the players to ensure that the successful candidate has first-hand experience of professional rugby, preferably as a player, and understands the pressures players and coaches are faced with in the modern professional game."

The latter comment is a clear hint from the players that they would prefer the appointment of someone like Mick Galwey, rather than union figures such as Ulster's Joey Miles - a selector from the days of the Big Five - or John Hussey, names mooted this week. In other words, imitate the policy of Munster, who appointed Shaun Payne as manager.

Of course, the likelihood is that the mooted backs coach - which is O'Sullivan's area of expertise - will be in place before the Six Nations, or possibly for that matter a new manager.

So the show moves on, with the same management ticket in place, and the union await the outcome of the Six Nations before deciding to grant them all four-year contracts as well or apply a new broom, from the top. In their eyes, the much-vaunted fudge that was this review will have achieved its aim of buying them time.

Much ado about nothing, or what you might call A Noisy Blip.