A despondent looking Joe Schmidt said there can be no excuses made after the 32 point World Cup loss to New Zealand on Saturday morning.
In his final game in charge after six years, Ireland were sent crashing out of the competition as they once again exited at the quarter-final stage.
"I don’t have an excuse or a reason for it.
"You can’t afford to give the All Blacks points.
"It was a bit flat, on the back of having a few niggles. We were not sure of the team until Thursday.
"I thought we needed to get off to a good start and if we didn’t we would be a bit vulnerable."
Ireland were kept scoreless in the game until the 69th minute, Schmidt was asked at full time whether he felt the game was a missed chance.
“Before the third try we had really good space but we didn’t quite put things together, we spilled that and the All Blacks scored.
"You have to make them work for everything.
"In the past, we had forced them to do that even when we lost against them.
"Then we were chasing the game and if you are chasing the game against the All Blacks you are going to give them opportunities and that is exactly what we did."
Ireland went into this tournament ranked the number one side in the world, many felt though they couldn't get near their 2018 form.
Schmidt has discussed this decline in form over the past 12 months.
"When you hit a high there is always a little bit of a drop.
"We work with human beings. We’d won three out of the last five so that is why it is so devastating. We didn’t produce the performance on the night.
"We weren’t as regenerated as we would have liked to have been. The error count makes it incredibly tough and I don’t have a reason for that but there is always anxiety, guys who overreach and you don’t get the performance you are looking for.
"There is no team we haven’t beaten. We have beaten the All Blacks at a neutral venue. It is our performance we are really disappointed with. I have huge respect for the All Blacks.
"Australia offload every bit as often and they got beaten 36-0 last time they played the All Blacks when they were in a similar mood. You don’t have to be too far off to receive an accumulation of points against that team."
And so it's back to the drawing board for Ireland as Andy Farrell prepares to take the ropes and aims to pick up the pieces with next year's Six Nations.
Schmidt was reflective at full-time;
"We would love to have got into the top four. That is the one thing that continues to remain elusive. Heartbroken would not be far away from how I feel and how the players feel.
"After the November series we wanted to make sure this was our target and maybe it consumed us too much and we got distracted from the focus.
"You carry your scars a lot more than your successes and the scars are deep and that is why I am broken by it. But when I get some distance to reflect, we’ve had maybe 75 test matches and won 75 percent of them.
"We’ve had some incredibly good days and they don’t get washed away by two defeats. I felt we had good reason four years ago where we lost our leadership but we have just met a team who are number one in the world for a reason."
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