In general, leaders are inflexible.

The question Irish rugby and the Irish coach needs to ask . . . as new onfield players and leaders are found . . . is can O'Sullivan adapt and learn from his mistakes?

First, let this be said: O'Sullivan has been a very good Six Nations coach who has had a very bad World Cup. It's en vogue to rubbish O'Sullivan and Ireland's achievements prior to the World Cup, but that's lazy and unfair.

On Questions and Answerswe heard the audience bemoan the fact Ireland have won more championship points over the last eight years than any other nation but have yet to win the championship itself. The inference was we'd have been better off doing a Wales '05 before returning to oblivion.

If David McWilliams wrote about sport, he might declare that we're living in a George Hook world and as much fun as it and George can be, it can be a bit deluded too. While coaches and athletes, the men in the arena, talk about how process and the way you do things rather than outcome is king, us cold, timid souls outside that arena only see outcome; second is nowhere. And so George favours Seamus Moynihan over Sonia O'Sullivan as the outstanding Irish sportsperson of 2000 because Sonia was only the second-fastest long-distance runner in the world while Moynihan . . .arguably only the second-best player on his own team that year to Mike Frank Russell . . . lifted Sam and won gold. And the rest of us . . . the Hookers as David might term us . . . dismiss this team's Triple Crowns, forgetting it took Kidney's Munster and Woodward's England seven years to find their holy grails.

Sure, the Six Nations isn't the Tri-Nations and our Triple Crowns carry only so much weight but was the championship really that better in the '90s and how many Triple Crowns were we winning then? And ever think how ludicrous it was that Ireland had no warm-up game in Croke Park before the French game last spring? There were two away teams playing that day. O'Sullivan though had the grace to know that was beyond his control and reflect that had France's dubious last-second try against Scotland not been awarded, would Ireland by virtue of being Six Nations champions, be any better a team than the one they had been two hours earlier in Rome?

Ireland are a worse team now though.

Bob Rotella once defined confidence as "playing with your eyes".

Last month Ireland didn't. In the first seven weeks of their 10-week pre-season camp, they barely touched a ball. Instead they fell into that age-old trapdoor of overemphasising what studies show to be the biggest . . . but not the most important . . . source of confidence: physical preparation.

Mental toughness has been defined as the management of energy and recent months would suggest even someone as mentally tough as Paul O'Connell over-expended his energy. Shaun Payne has said that the trick with Munster is to know when O'Connell has to be hauled away from the training ground and his laptop analysis. Jim Glennon was wrong in his dismissal of Ireland's Six Nations record but he was spot-on when he identified this was a team in bad need of having a good blow-out.

The other fundamental sources of confidence stem from skills preparation . . . demonstration of ability and sense of mastery. The Irish players wanted to demonstrate their ability, that sense of mastery, but the problem was it had been over six months since they had last felt and displayed it. The damage of such a limited game schedule was exacerbated by a pre-season so devoid of ballwork. Instead of playing from instinct, Ireland were playing from memory and instruction. Instead of it just flowing, everything was forced.

From one such basic but massive miscalculation . . . being "short of rugby" as O'Sullivan admitted last Sunday . . . everything else spiralled. Pre-tournament, the "second 15" had accepted their roles on the assumption and condition they would play their part against Georgia. After Namibia, O'Sullivan understandably decided that his starters needed an extra game under their belts. The result was to disenfranchise his fringe players. They didn't moan and become what Woodward termed 'energy sappers', but the energy of the group was nonetheless sapped; how could it not when the wind had been taken out of the sails of those second 15 individuals?

In the DVD edition of 'Reaching for Glory', there's a telling comment from O'Sullivan on Brian O'Driscoll's (left) captaincy. Leaders, contends O'Sullivan, emerge;

they are not chosen. But that's not true. As Vince Lombardi said, "Contrary to the opinion of many people, leaders are made, and they are made by hard work." In his new term . . . and new style . . . O'Sullivan must appreciate leaders can be cultivated. How? As well as playing more players more often, he must consult more players more often. O'Connell and O'Driscoll are part of O'Sullivan's war council but even O'Connell admitted the squad could have done with the traditional routine of warm-up games against the provinces. If it did not occur to him before last month, it would have to other squad members but the net was never thrown that far. The more mature a group, the greater their input should be, but after giving the players a bigger say on and off the field after Paris '06, such a rein was tightened in recent months.

O'Sullivan has shown himself to be an elite Six Nations coach and deserves another such championship to redeem himself. But if that situation shows he still can't adapt, then his stint as Ireland's leader must surely die.