As Joe Schmidt attempted to explain away another quarter final knee-capping, a horde of jubilant Argentineans chanted their way past the press room.
The sound drifted away and Schmidt smiled ruefully. It should have been us.
Only problem is, it should not have been us.
We came close once – within three points – but we never got another look-in.
The Ireland coach was asked, after his side were blasted 43-20, if Ireland’s slow start or failure to capitalise on the 23-20 scoreline, and tide shift, was the most disappointing.
“Can I say that both were really disappointing?” Schmidt asked.
“It’s a tough one to call,” he continued. “Both were incredibly disappointing. You can’t afford to give such a good team a head-start like that.
“At the same time, at 23-20, we had a position in their 22 and worked an overlap that we didn’t quite go to. There’s a little bit of a lack of experience [there] and that is disappointing.
“Once we were chasing the game at the end, there was always the potential for them to get a couple of breakaway tries because they’ve got such gifted players and we tended to force things in places you don’t need to. You chance your arm in positions you don’t need to.”
Schmidt added, “Dev was unlucky about [the high tackle penalty on] Sanchez, who I thought was imperious today… but I do think he milked that for everything it was worth.
“Once it got to 26-20 it made it that more difficult. That is not taking anything away from his or the Argentinean performance. They really were superb.”
The New Zealander also lamented Ian Madigan’s missed penalty – at 23-20 – that “shaved the post”.
Interestingly, Schmidt came back, time and again, to his team’s lack of experience.
Granted, they were without Peter O’Mahony, Paul O’Connell, Sean O’Brien and Johnny Sexton, Ireland’s starting XV still had over 600 caps of Test match experience.
Hard not to respect the performance Argentina put on.
Schmidt commented, ” A lot of guys have never experienced a game of that intensity… Scoreboard pressure lifted their confidence and knocked ours… I’m not saying [our players] were overawed by it.
Asked if Ireland truly, madly, deeply missed O’Connell, Schmidt reasoned, “That’s the nature of the game. It’s that attritional.
“I’m incredibly proud of the guys that stepped but and I know the guys that missed out are incredibly proud too.”
