"Muchos gracias senor."

Sorry I had to use that one again, I think it's classic. Well, the bloody Argies done us again and unless you are Bertie's chiropodist you will understand fully that defeat is painful.

Defeat tells us a lot about ourselves as a nation. Our reaction has been vociferous, a virtual volley of vulgar vicissitudes, some venomous, others vicious, most of them vindictive opinions which litter our letters-to-the-editor pages.

Ve . . . sorry . . . We have got to ask ourselves the question though did we honestly think that we were going to get out of the Pool D? Really? Take a moment in your cluttered day and give it some uninterrupted thought. We were going nowhere. Good teams, even great teams peak and trough. Sometimes a slide can last a year or two requiring maybe an accidental catalyst or a timing sequence to act as a dynamic to change the trend. This slide as far as I can see will last until the tour of South Africa before they can recover themselves . . .meanwhile most people see clearly that the dynamic required is Eddie's testes in the liquidizer. Truth is, though, his removal won't improve the situation.

The team has played nine bad games in a row which in anyone's language constitutes more than a blip. By the time the summer comes they will not have played well in 14 games. What makes me think that it will stop on a tour of South Africa? Nothing, I'm only guessing. We could get caned twice but maybe we might play well . . . be competitive even for the whole match.

This team has been pretty good for the last four years . . . that's not bad for a squad that only has 19 internationalclass players in it. That's not bad . . . when I played in the '90s we only had about 9 or 10. The squad rotation theorists really haven't a rashers . . . Eddie would rotate if he could. If the squad had been able to maintain the sort of form they displayed in that period it would have been a neat trick. Even if they had brought their A game to France they would have had difficulty getting out of the group. Statistics don't do it for me but something inside me tells me how to decide on something when overwhelming evidence presents itself . . . we have won once in Paris in 34 years. What would make you think that we could beat the French in their competition in their capital city when another defeat would have put them out of the competition?

The startling thing about the French game was the margin.

Laporte's limit of ambition was just a win. If they had gone about themselves with real conviction Ireland's biggest thumping in Paris would have been a reality. Our performance stank the place out.

Bravery in Paris is the last resort when the pot is empty.

Argentina are a splendid team. It's not a sneaking admiration it is a full frontal bow to a bunch of players who saw an opportunity, turned up hungry and sharp, played smart and believed a semi-final place was there not to be hijacked but there by right.

Not one of Ireland's forwards would be good enough to get into Argentina's eight. The inclusion of Gonzalo Congo (somewhere between Mark Loane and Dean Richards) gave the Argie pack added impetus. I don't know if you watched his performance closely . . . he called everything, he instigated and initiated everything. He brought control, aggression and structure to the Argentine pack. He is a devastating tackler and he recovered from injury right on cue. The halves . . . when this column thinks that Juan Hernandez (right) and Pichot are no longer the best half-back pairing in the world I'll let you know. The threequarters are as focused a unit as I have seen. I would have guessed that their two wingers Borges and Ajalla would be their most vulnerable link but they have been a revelation. If a team is only as strong as its weakest link then Argentina are going to take a lot of stopping.

Today, they could find it difficult against a Scottish side that is so tactically bankrupt it could unsettle them. Messers sometimes find it difficult to play against messers, uncharitable as it is to call Argentina messers. They are difficult opposition and Ireland on the slide hopelessly came up short tactically in trying to the deal with them.

That's Eddie's job . . . so let's talk about him for a while. A bloke in The Irish Times letters page put it very succinctly. "If a vineyard produces the finest crop of grapes in many decades and the wine maker produces a dull and dispirited wine who is to blame . . . the wine maker or the grapes?" Touche Mr Letter Writer.

No question that in the main Eddie is to blame for a large part of what went wrong. The players were 40 to 50 per cent off where they should have been.

That's his fault. Rare so that he should get it so badly wrong. Most of his teams arrive prepared and turn up ready to compete. Should he be sacked for Ireland's worst ever World Cup? Well, let's go back to the people who gave him the four-year extension. There is no beginning to their talents.

O'Sullivan's contract was not due for renewal until after the 2008 Six Nations.

A gun was produced but the 'Sullivan 6' probably thought that they couldn't go too far wrong. O'Sullivan's record had been impressive but past performance isn't a reliable indicator of future growth as the ads say.

I see a third place finish in the Six Nations in my crystal ball and poor Heineken results which might add to the pressure. But I guarantee you O'Sullivan will survive. After this Sunday most of the scribes will leave him be. He will lay low for the next three months, a shorter time than is required before the Six Nations starts up again. He will plot and he will reinvent himself.

Meanwhile the rowing champion and his masters will convene a meeting.

Financially this World Cup has been a disaster . . . forget about the football, the windfalls have dried up. Even the loss of income for failing to get out of the group is cataclysmic. Even speaking to some of the IRFU's sponsors . . . there will be fun and games at contract renewals . . .

money is always the key issue. When Philip Browne sat down and defended Eddie this week, he meant it. Eddie would have his contract honoured.

Why? Because they can't afford to shell out over a bar to pay him off. If they had waited until the 2008 Six Nations was over and the team was still poor . . . Eddie would still be there.

The nosferatu would look around and see Declan Kidney . . . politically friendless and at odds with the Leinster players and a good portion of Ulster players and leagues away from O'Sullivan's structured proficiency. Kidney is also a colour-by-numbers coach. Michael Bradley and Mark McCall are still learning the trade, with their pedigrees at this level untried and no certainty that when their apprenticeship is up that they will be remotely good enough. The mandarins would have looked around the world. Nick Mallet . . . he would have been worth 1m per annum but took Italy as a lifestyle choice. They will be very good next year. So who is free?

Gareth Jenkins? Zoikes! Brian Ashton will be sacked by England . . . lets give him another six-year contract. Eddie Jones is yearning the sterling in Sarries. What was the name of the Georgian coach again? Or what about Hakkies Husselman, the Namibian coach?

There are two certainties for the coming season. One is that Eddie will continue as Ireland coach. The second is that anybody who even remotely looked like they gave the impression that something was wrong in the camp will be dispatched to a shallow grave in the Dublin mountains.

I looked up the word "Eddy" in the Oxford Concise Dictionary. It says "to move or cause to move against the main current". Woe betide anyone in the squad who moves against the current.

They shall meet another type of Eddie.