Two tries. Four needed. But that has been the way for this Irish side since the team's results against Georgia and France. It has been a team that has always been halfway towards the place they needed to be, always heaving and stuttering but never quite arriving.

Again in Parc des Princes, Brian O'Driscoll and his players found Argentina a match too far and again Eddie O'Sullivan sought to put his finger on what exactly went wrong. Alas, the coach never quite got there either.

But O'Sullivan was defiant as much as he was disappointed about Ireland's premature departure from this tournament. He also said afterwards that following "soul-searching" when the squad returns home, he was the man to lead Ireland as long as his contract lasts.

"In terms of my own commitment to the job, I have a contract to run and I have every intention of following it through," said O'Sullivan. "I have the appetite for the job, I'm totally committed to it. This has been a tough World Cup and things haven't gone to plan. That's no reason to walk away. I've never walked away from a challenge before in my life."

O'Sullivan was flanked by team captain O'Driscoll who again supported his coach and levelled much of what went wrong at the feet of the players, who just didn't perform.

"Individually we didn't produce big games," he said. "There is only so much coaching that can be done. The responsibility of the 15 or the 22 that make the field every week . . . it's on them and we didn't front up enough in the four games. You've got to say we left our performance behind at this World Cup. Yes, that is very disappointing.

"We did play some good rugby at times today. But it was too little too late in a game we were trying to chase."

Raking over the coals will take place more forensically when the team returns home. As a matter of procedure, there's always a study of the team's performances after Six Nations, autumn internationals and World Cups. But O'Sullivan still doesn't know what went wrong although, the mantra of not playing enough rugby was repeated.

"We all know this team is capable of playing to a certain level and we never achieved that. Certainly the first two games, we didn't get our game going. That really was the crux of it," said O'Sullivan. "The question is why did it come down to this, why didn't we play to the form we know we can play. I can't say for sure but I think we looked like a team that was short on rugby. That's my first reaction."

While the players looked to themselves and found some wanting and publicly supported the coach, O'Sullivan too said his faith in the group of players who he steadfastly supported through this campaign, remained intact.

"I still have lots of faith in this team," he said. "Just think back six months ago when this team were playing very good rugby. You don't become a bad team over six months. That's for sure.

"It's disappointing coming to a World Cup and going out at this stage. We created a lot of expectation around the team coming here, expectation of ourselves and of the fans. But those expectations came on the back of some great performances earlier this year. We always prided ourselves on our performance and this time we've come up short. That's the most disappointing thing."

Again though thoughts drifted back to the opening games against Namibia and Georgia. Ireland's failure to get a four-try bonus point against the Georgians ensured yesterday's match was always going to leave Argentina in pole position. The structure of Ireland's tactics was also coloured by the day's necessities. "It wasn't a straight-forward game where a one-point win would have gotten us across the line like it did four years ago," said the coach.

"We had a different agenda today and that coloured how the game was played both for us and Argentina. They forced us to play from deep . . . it was hard work out there and we kept working as hard as we could for as long as we could . . . it was a difficult day and we didn't get the rewards we were looking for, which was four tries."

O'Sullivan goes home with a team subdued, frustrated and somewhat confused about their own worth.