Ireland have to aim high at World Cup

On Rugby:As Eddie O'Sullivan once observed: "You do not have to be the best team to win, you just have to do it for 80 minutes." If there's one truism from the 2007 RBS Six Nations, it is surely that. Amongst other things, the year of the choke for example, it was that so much in modern-day rugby can come down to what happens in the 80th minute.

Even the TMOs seem to be creating more, rather than less, controversy over their decisions since they came into being. Did Roland de Marigny made a double movement in scoring in Rome? Was Ally Hogg correct in maintaining he had his arm under the ball as Elvis Vermeulen scored the title-clinching 80th-minute try.

Back in Heartbreak Hotel, aka the Westin Excelsior on Via Veneto, they certainly thought so.

The Scots especially, and even the English and Welsh to a degree mightn't agree, but a sure sign of a good tournament was that there were so many controversial moments and so many extraordinary memories.

There were a few duds along the way, videos of Scotland v Wales will take some beating as a sedative, and the Bionic Men back in the All Blacks camp won't be quaking in their boots, but it was certainly a rollercoaster.

If the bonus points scoring system had applied, Ireland in theory would have been champions. You could understand where O'Sullivan was coming from in bemoaning Ireland's lack of luck, but the Irish players, seemingly to a man, bemoaned their own inability to take charge of their own destiny.

Let's look at it from a French perspective. Had Ireland gone to Paris and manufactured the same late try from a four-point deficit off their own restart, had they then manufactured a title-winning try off another of their own restarts with the last play of the game at home to Scotland, we would be heralding a first Irish championship in 22 years without mentioning a bounce of the ball.

If there is any villain from an Irish perspective here, it is the BBC for staggering the Super Saturday kick-offs in first England's, and then France's favour. He who pays the piper and all that, but sod their parochialism anyway - witness a profile of Mike Catt during Saturday's interval in Rome, not to mention landing Ireland with two dreary Sunday slots and two 1.30 Saturday kick-offs.

However, for all the astonishing highs of Croke Park against England, the second half against France and the brilliance of their running, offloading and finishing in Rome, an infuriatingly inconsistent Ireland underachieved slightly.

That may sound a harsh judgement, but after all they finished runners-up to France last year on points' difference, and this year, despite France having only Wales and Scotland at home, whereas Ireland had the big two in Croke Park, ended up with a similar fate. "I wouldn't blame a bounce of the ball, that's a key point. That's the way it happened that day," admitted Ronan O'Gara on Saturday night.

At least watching O'Gara give full rein to his own running and handling game in tandem with his longtime half-back partner and the Leinster galacticos in the Roman sun remains an abiding joy. This is probably the best collection of Irish backs ever to grace the green jersey, and could well be for another 25 years or more.

Watching David Wallace and Denis Hickie give full vent to their talents again made you wonder why their talents have previously been ignored.

And watching events unfold on Saturday made one wonder why Leo Cullen was ignored, why Mick O'Driscoll was employed with limited gametime at lock behind him, and why the impact replacement most liable to dovetail with the approach wasn't even on the bench? After all, Geordan Murphy has done time at outhalf, outside centre, wing and fullback. It's not like he lacks versatility from the bench either.

If the flair of Saturday is reproduced in a French autumn, then bring on the World Cup. Against that, Ireland are in a brute of a group, most probably containing three of the world's top six or seven sides. The strong-scrummaging Pumas or French are not as likely to let ominously potent attacking scrums become two possible 14-point turnovers.

As the French game, sans Brian O'Driscoll and Peter Stringer, and Rome, without Paul O'Connell, underlined again, Ireland are worryingly more dependant on their frontliners than France, who have also used the Six Nations more to expand their squad base and will probably be better again come the Cup.

O'Sullivan's selections of Denis Leamy and Gordon D'Arcy at eight and inside centre have borne outstanding fruition, and the hope persists that he continues to back such inspired hunches. It's encouraging to hear from those close to O'Sullivan that, in an apparent change of tack from earlier in the season, he is now likely to rest all his frontliners for the two Tests in Argentina. Excellent news.

The second tier are talented enough to take on the Pumas and expand his options for the World Cup. No team will go through the World Cup injury free.

Ideally, too, the more daring approach would be to play the frontliners in the opener against Namibia, and then rest them up as best as possible for the second outing against Georgia. An Irish third team would beat Georgia with a bonus point, never mind the 'seconds', thereby giving the majority of them an 11-day run-in to the match with France, to be followed by the Argentinian game. The Six Nations confirmed Ireland remain way ahead of England, Wales, Italy and Scotland. They have to believe they are contenders and have a selection strategy in accordance with that belief. Ireland have to aim high at RWC 2007.

When it comes to picking a team of the tournament, it's hard to be entirely subjective, and picking eight Irish players probably re-affirms the point, even if this is partly down to Bernard Laporte being more inclined to rotate his players. Yet it merely adds to the nagging suspicion that, all things considered, it should have been Ireland's year. Maybe, as Denis Hickie suggested, the lessons learned will ultimately prove beneficial. There is plenty for Ireland to chew over in the freedom of expression they played with on Sautrday, but ultimately you learn more from your defeats, and that 80th minute still hurts the most.