Shrapnel all over the studio but entrails left unpoked

TV VIEW:SOMBRE WOULD not be the word to describe the mood in the RTÉ rugby studio on Saturday evening. It was even more serious than that, as Tom McGurk reflected on what he called "the end of an era". Not that Eddie O'Sullivan had been told by the IRFU his job was done, but the wise men alongside McGurk didn't need crystal balls to tell them what the future held for Ireland's rugby coach.

"The IRFU sitting in the stands know they must do something different," George Hook informed us. "Nobody takes pleasure in an Irish team losing like this. Nobody takes pleasure in a man losing his job. The point is, this is our national team and there must be change . . . . nobody takes pleasure from the prospect of somebody losing their job; there are families involved and everything else."

But the solemn mood had affected Hook. He wasn't much in the mood for talking about O'Sullivan any more.

"I said it when it had to be said; this isn't the time to be poking over the entrails," he responded when McGurk invited him to delve in after hearing the post-match interview with Tracy Piggott in which the coach conceded he would sit down with the IRFU in the coming weeks to scrutinise what turned out to be Ireland's worst Six Nations campaign since 1999.

Indeed, the mood was hardly that of a party from the outset. The high-tempo intro to coverage of the Ireland-England match featured a couple of players running from a series of explosions, perhaps indicating some kind of warfare lay ahead of us. Yet, as match co-commentator Tony Ward observed, this was never going to rival the highly charged matches of recent years.

"There's no championship, no Grand Slam, no Triple Crown on the line . . . the pressure is off," said Ward.

Unfortunately for O'Sullivan, the heavy defeat only piled more pressure onto his prospects of staying in charge, even with the ink still relatively fresh on his extended contract.

As the match progressed, we didn't need studio experts to tell us how badly things were going.

"You wonder how something that was so wonderful for so long can malfunction so much during this Six Nations," remarked a clearly frustrated Ryle Nugent as the Irish lineout struggled to win clean possession in the first half.

By half-time, Nugent's frustration was being shared by Hook back at base.

"It's rosary-bead time," said Hook in wondering how the Irish midfield had somehow managed to keep England from scoring more tries.

Brent Pope and Conor O'Shea agreed the backline was porous.

"Are England seeing the holes we're seeing?" asked Pope.

"Absolutely," replied O'Shea, knowing full well a big defeat beckoned.

"It's hard to watch," claimed Hook near the end. "A bunch of English kids are teasing the best Irish team we've ever had."

Nugent's exasperation was clear. When Paddy Wallace finally got to taste some action, Nugent remarked: "Four minutes from the end of the Six Nations Paddy Wallace removes himself from the splinters he must have been getting (sitting on the bench)."

To which Ward added, "it's kind of (the) best-trier reward."

Afterwards, Hook pinpointed Wallace's plight as symptomatic of Ireland's problems.

"Wallace demonstrates the weakness of what O'Sullivan has been doing. He's brought nobody forward . . . anybody can pick a team when you lose. The fella selling newspapers on the street corner can tell you what's wrong with the team when they lose. The trick of great coaches and managers is to pick the team when it's winning."

In stark contrast, the experts pointed out, Wales's fortunes had changed dramatically when the Welsh union changed coaches after their dismal World Cup. As George Hamilton observed in his match commentary, Wales had "gone from zeroes to heroes, gone from a position of poverty to being Grand Slam champions".

Pope, clearly happy for his fellow Kiwi Warren Gatland, who had performed the miracle for the Welsh without any need of rosary beads, claimed, "(Wales) are not a great side, (but) play with so much heart and spirit. It shows you what you can do with a limited amount of talent."

Pope also made the point that Wales had made so many tackles on the French to secure victory at the Millennium Stadium, recalling a belief of one of his former coaches that if you were willing and able to make 140 tackles in a match you would always win.

Another former player who could never be accused of being afraid to tackle was Alan Mullery, who had the melancholy task of describing Tottenham's misfortunes in the Uefa Cup match on Sky Sports the other night. With no live coverage of the game, we were left to rely on Mullery - watching the game on a monitor - to bring us his own brand of match commentary, which included clear disgust at times.

Mullery, who became the first English player to be sent off - for kicking an opponent in the 1968 European Championship loss (1-0) to Yugoslavia (being greeted by manager Alf Ramsey with the words, "I'm glad somebody decided to give those bastards a taste of their own medicine") - raised his eyes to heaven at one juncture and exclaimed, "That Malbranque couldn't tackle my missus."

He then had to watch as Spurs lost to PSV in a penalty shootout.