Assessing where it all went wrong for Ireland at the Rugby World Cup in Japan, Ewan MacKenna focused his ire at the departing head coach Joe Schmidt.
"To write a book by yourself in a World Cup year is lunacy."
In the OTB AM studio to promote a book of his own, Ewan MacKenna took umbrage with the release date of Joe Schmidt's self-penned autobiography, Ordinary Joe.
Although he conceded that he has not (and isn't necessarily likely to) read the New Zealander's book, the matter of its emergence irked MacKenna.
"The time and effort that takes," he stressed. "I was talking to Eddie O'Sullivan and he discussed the time when Vincent Hogan wrote his book and the amount of effort it took - and he had a professional writer doing it!
"For Joe to do that in a World Cup year is absolutely mad. It is a time-consuming, exhausting process and I think Joe Schmidt said he worked seven-days-a-week and he doesn't sleep.
"Well how much of that was on the book?"
It is very hard to champion a guy after a bad World Cup who is releasing a book after saying that he was quitting a year ago
The extent of MacKenna's disdain did not begin and end with the writing of a book, however.
A regularly outspoken critic of the Irish rugby team (among other things), MacKenna believes there is very little of Schmidt's tenure as Ireland's head coach to retrospectively celebrate.
"I'm critical of Schmidt's last year," he specified. "His decision to call time on it when he did, to write a book, to not change the game-plan, to stick with the same team and get a World Cup atrociously wrong.
"I'd be very critical of that, the same way I'd say, 'Well done on the Grand Slam.'"
The New Zealander's decision to announce the conclusion of his Irish tenure almost one-year before he eventually departed struck MacKenna as particularly troubling.
"It looks bad for him," he reasoned. "Having failed now it all comes back on him.
"It is very hard to champion a guy after a bad World Cup who is releasing a book after saying that he was quitting a year ago. It just doesn't look good.
"Ultimately, he was a failure at two World Cups and that has to stand against him hugely.
"I don't think he can be championed to the level he is when you fail at not one but two World Cups."
You can watch Ewan MacKenna promoting his own book, Chaos is a Friend of Mine, about Conor McGregor, modern Ireland and the concept of celebrity, here.
You can also watch Joe Schmidt promote his own book, Ordinary Joe, here.
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