"I started a joke, that started the whole world ......" | Ireland v New Zealand.

They got knocked out.

It isn't an 'utter failure' because I didn't have the peculiar entitlement some had going into the tournament.

I knew that on their day any of the top teams had a chance to beat us, I'd have absolutely no doubt the players knew this too.

Seems you had the exalted expectation/entitlement and cannot deal with the outcome without lashing out in disrespect.

Completely agree you can't blame the loss on one particular player. But it would be a stretch to say it wasn't a factor.

Sorry but no, as above. Andrew Porter gave away 3 penalties that he really shouldn't have. Our early lineouts were disasters, scrum time was like something from the AIL. Conor Murray gave away a needless penalty in the closing minutes, Ronan Kelleher should really have been able to score that try...

I could go on but my point is that you can't blame the loss on one player.

NZ were also nervous and missed a peno.

I don't think there is any evidence of a choke.

Two even teams went toe to toe and one edged it by a score which was always possible if you were being realistic or professional.

You're saying that none of this had to do with rotation, if Sexton didn't play against Scotland he would obviously be fresher for a 80 minute game v NZ. I certainly think the lack of rotation was a contributory factor to us losing the QF. We had a panel of 33 for the RWC, Farrell used that to bring injured players to the RWC or keep injured players and therefore he had less options at rotation.

You seem to think I'm laying the blame on Sexton, I'm not but again I'd argue his tiredness was a contributory factor and I don't how anyone is really trying say it wasn't. We can admire him and Farrell but that doesn't mean either are infallible.

This is getting circular and obviously you don't want to accept it but the lads were tired because of the lack of rotation. We have out 15 and we use our 15 seemed to be the mantra.

I suggested in the lead up the Scotland game that Farrell should use his 16-23 to start but no, we went full tilt and the lads were wrecked in the last few minutes of the QF.

We can't just pass this loss off on NZ being better, we were poorer than any of our other games, was some of that down to fatigue, I think it was.

Is there anything of value to be added from all the retrospective analysis that has taken place on this site and elsewhere? Anything apart from "players shouldnt make mistakes"...? Anything that could inform us about how things should be done differently in four, or eight years time.

I really dont see it, which says to me the coaching team and players did a really good job preparing for this tournament.

But thats sport - its absolute, there is one winner and one loser; but there is a very fine line in between, a lot of the time. Hande Pollard misses his kick, and all of a sudden Steve Borthwick is the best England Manager for 20 years.

No, they edged it by 4 points. A try is 5.

There is zero evidence that the team choked. There is no set 'best level'. In the 17 unbeaten games they played the team in front of them on the day at massively varying levels and with mistakes aplenty. The circumstances of the game dictated how the game played out in other words.

In the last three games they played their QF opponents they won 2 and lost by a lot in one. This game was always going to be a toe to toe battle, and quite simply, they won it, after a titanic struggle with zero quarter given by either team.

That is simply not a choke and never will be unless you want to cheaply demean people. What choked was your sense of entitlement to something we were never entitled to.

They edged it by 4 points.

Why would I use 'edge' in relation to Ireland? We didn't edge it, they did.