International rugby: Where do Ireland go from here? In the immediate aftermath of Saturday's chastening 45-7 defeat to the All Blacks, the mood was so dispirited and depressed among a crowd that to its eternal credit had shown the All Blacks every courtesy, one ventured not many bothered to contemplate it.
Looming ominously on the Irish horizon for the next few years, the All Blacks have rarely seemed less beatable.
Four years ago, in a thriller, Ireland led the All Blacks 21-7 early in the second half before ultimately losing 40-29 to a brilliant comeback. The coach, by the by, was removed. What has changed? Undoubtedly the All Blacks have rapidly taken the game on to a new level in their two years under Graham Henry, Wayne Smith and Steve Hansen, especially in the last year.
"I think it's more an integration of the Super 12 with us," ventured Smith on Saturday night.
"The relationships are a lot better. Everybody is working together for New Zealand rugby, which I don't think has been done before. So the Super 12 and NPC coaches at home will be basking in reflected glory today."
In all of this, from underage rugby up, everything focuses on the one-on-one contests or collisions that now dominate the game. And it wasn't just the dancing feet of Doug Howlett and Leon MacDonald, or the powerful, sidestepping of Ma'a Nonu - all the forwards could do it as well.
The supposed subediting that changed "All Backs" and thereby earned New Zealand's Originals the moniker All Blacks 100 years ago has never seemed more apt. They're All Forwards too.
Eddie O'Sullivan was keen to accentuate the All Blacks' brilliance, particularly their extraordinary skilfulness. But when someone dared to ask how these skills levels might be breached, incredibly O'Sullivan said: "In the short term it's going to be very hard. In the long term, it's not my problem," before adding: "My job is to coach the players that are available to me, so what you do is work on the things we have to work on. Timelines are tight, we don't have a lot of time together, but that's all you can do. So let's sit back on the horse next week and get on with it."
For a coach who has been given carte blanche by the IRFU in terms of assistance, time and player monitoring, this prompts the question why O'Sullivan recently parachuted in his old mate, former Irish under-age coach Brian McLoughlin as a full-time IRFU skills coach working with the national team.
In terms of win-loss ratios, O'Sullivan is Ireland's most successful coach ever, and aside from a Triple Crown, Ireland have also scalped Australia, South Africa, France and England at home. He is also Ireland's longest-serving coach, having been in charge for 47 matches over the last four years.
Taking into account his previous two years and 18 games as assistant coach, O'Sullivan has now been centrally involved for 65 games over a six-year period during which Warren Gatland, Declan Kidney, Brian O'Brien and latterly Mike Ford have been and gone.
Ford was on record as stating he wanted a more influential role, offensively as well as defensively, and he has been granted that wish at Saracens.
O'Sullivan is an intelligent, hard-working, technically astute coach who has masterminded some famous wins, but plenty of good judges out there - former players, former coaches, current coaches, etc - are wondering if, apart from Niall O'Donovan, O'Sullivan has the requisite coaching staff around him.
At Saturday's post-match press conferences, whereas O'Sullivan again sat on his own, flanked by three empty chairs (Simon Easterby was detained getting his badly perforated lip stitched), Henry as ever was happy to share the glory with two assistant coaches who have been in charge of Super 12-winning sides and Test sides of their own.
For sure the conveyor belt here provides nothing like the talent coming through there.
So, in addition to rebuilding damaged morale, alternatives to play Australia next Saturday are limited, all the more so after O'Sullivan's choices as replacements last week. Easterby is a major doubt in any case, and O'Sullivan is on record as stating Anthony Foley would have captained the side if Easterby had not been deemed fit last week.
Given the sudden transformation in game plan, the absence of David Wallace in a pack chronically short of ball-carrying ability looks even more perplexing, while the form of Trevor Brennan, Bob Casey and Mick O'Driscoll doesn't appear to be on the radar.
Looking further ahead, next summer (after stopovers in France and England) Ireland must travel Down Under to take on Australia once and, ye gods, the All Blacks twice.
Further still down the track, if Ireland can progress upwards toward the 2007 World Cup even by beating Argentina and coming second to the hosts, France, in their pool, their "reward" will be a quarter-final with the Almighty Blacks. The future has far, far too much black in it alright.
