At least now, with the promise of anonymity, we can expect some honesty from the Irish players involved in France over the past four weeks and it will be interesting to see what assessments they come up with.

Off the record, though, there have been one or two interesting tidbits. It would appear, from talking to a couple of members of the current squad, that a subtle change in team tactics over the past few months is as much to blame for Ireland's underachievement as any physical or conditioning issues, which there certainly were. A 'play what's in front of you' philosophy, which began as a reaction to the disastrous November campaign of 2005, and continued with expansive victories over South Africa and Australia 12 months later, appears to have been modified at the end of last year's Six Nations.

Instead, Eddie O'Sullivan, as he always will when he feels under pressure, reverted back to type and reintroduced a certain structure to Ireland's game. Thus the players began to think for themselves less as the coach exerted his influence more. Obviously there has been a physical problem for Ireland at the breakdown over the past few weeks but there was also a logistical one. On attacking ball, only two or three players committed themselves to rucks at any one time as others prepared themselves for their role in the next phase of play. The big problem with that kind of organisation is that, without securing the ball first, the next attack doesn't exist. Hence the 10 turnovers last Sunday.

Patterns aside, it was instructive to note the observation from one player that the announcement from O'Sullivan that he'd been given a four-year contract was greeted with silence by the entire squad. No wolf whistles. No cheers. Not even a polite round of applause. While most of the players respect their head coach without actually liking him, none of them really wanted him to be in charge for another four years. Six years is enough. But those points aside, there's been nothing really juicy to report on the gossip front, particularly as most front-line players have been away on holiday.

Not to worry. All will be revealed over the course of time, be it through the frustrations of the disenchanted or, quite possibly, from the one or two in the 30-man World Cup squad who are expected to confirm their international retirements over the next month or two. It's not a huge mystery as to who constitute the latter group. On Monday, Boylesports were quick off the mark in offering odds of 1/10 on John Hayes retiring from international rugby before the end of 2007, with the odds on Malcolm O'Kelly at 1/25.

The bookies clearly think both are a done deal but Simon Best's unfortunate illness may well force the Irish management . . . the current one or any potential new regime . . . to attempt to twist Hayes's arm into sticking around for what would represent his ninth Six Nations in a row. In fact, it's remarkable to look at Hayes's appearance record and see that of Ireland's last 40 games in that particular competition, the Munster tight-head has started 39 of them. Best, who has yet to start a Six Nations game for Ireland, visited a Dublin cardiac specialist in Dublin on Wednesday and was "fairly optimistic" that he'd be able to resume his rugby career in the not too distant future.

Still, that prognosis hardly represents a full endorsement of his health and there remains a chance Best won't be able to take the field again, whereby persuading Hayes to stick around for another couple of months would become a necessity. Whether it's fair to ask the 33-year-old and his no-doubt creaking bones to stay on is another question entirely but it'll be interesting to see how this one works itself out.

As for O'Kelly, with 89 caps to his name, he's already Ireland's most capped player of all time and he surely can't fancy another seven weeks in camp after Christmas just to earn another five minutes as a substitute here and there. Under a different coaching regime, one where everyone in the set-up has at least a chance of starting any particular game, or coming on for half an hour, you'd imagine he'd have desire to stay on for another while but under the current coach, you wouldn't blame him for shutting the door on a memorable career.

So while you'd expect O'Kelly and, depending on the health of Best, Hayes, to announce their international retirements sometime before Christmas, there are others within the set-up who are unlikely to be involved in an Ireland squad again, even if they don't completely call a halt to their own participation. Alan Quinlan and Frankie Sheahan, for example, undoubtedly still have a lot to offer at the top level but the chances of them featuring in an Irish match-day 22 again, injuries aside, are fairly slim. Thirty-two-year-old Simon Easterby might also find his future role in the Irish set-up not as prominent as it previously was and there remains a worry that David Wallace's chronic ankle injury may not be able to hold up under the rigours of the international game for much longer.

As we've mentioned before, Geordan Murphy would be perfectly entitled to retire from international rugby because of the way he's been treated by O'Sullivan over the past couple of years but in his BBC Online column, he intimated that he would continue to play for Ireland for as long as he was asked to.

Comments like that, and the dignified manner in which he conducted himself during the World Cup, are a reflection of the character of the man. He's handled himself a hell of lot better these past few weeks than his coach has.

All of which leaves some significant room for squad turnover in advance of next year's Six Nations. The potential retirement of Hayes would allow for Munster's Tony Buckley to become a regular part of the squad, while if O'Kelly does decide to stand down, Trevor Hogan should get the opportunity to prove that he can push Paul O'Connell and, more particularly, Donncha O'Callaghan for a starting spot. As for the back-row, there's no reason why Shane Jennings can't make a serious claim for a starting spot now that he's back playing in Ireland. Further back the pitch, it would be nice to see Rob Kearney and Luke Fitzgerald battle it out to replace Denis Hickie on the Irish left-wing, and it mightn't be a bad idea to try Fitzgerald out at 13 at some point in the future.

Of course, that's the broadminded view on things. Going on previous form, and we have nothing else to go on, O'Sullivan is likely to enact minimal change in his starting 15 as he attempts to win the Six Nations his ego so badly desires.

Long-term development will, once again, be jettisoned for short-term gain. We have no reason to expect anything different from this regime.