It ended not quite how it had started, but how it continued in the Six Nations, for Ireland's fifth 'duck in a row'.

Former Leinster flanker Rocky Elsom, now the Wallaby captain, captured the essence of Ireland's regression with one simple remark about the so-so performance from Australia in Brisbane.

"I think when we played Ireland last year (November), we played a hell of a lot better and came away with a draw,'' he said.

Admittedly, Ireland were shaven of a raft of first-team players as they embarked on their quest for a first win in 31 years in Australia. Like in the NZ Maori match, they had the desire, control and organisation to get into a winning position without the confidence to see it through.

The erosion of belief from a deflating Six Nations campaign has been felt long and hard. The winning habit is gone and so too are the finer points of Ireland's play, especially in attack.

"Every time you go out and represent your country you want to do the best you can and that's why we'll be disappointed. It was a game that was possibly there. It got away from us," announced Declan Kidney.

The coach even played the game-time for 'rookies' card, even though it is doubtful any of them would have been blooded without a horrendous list of sidelined also-rans.

"You can't buy experience, so we gave experience to a number of fellas. The fact that we're disappointed, does that say something?"

Clearly, Kidney wanted the internal answer to be 'yes' inside the heads of the gathered press pack. The match-on-match improvement in the southern hemisphere may have had more to do with the drift in quality from New Zealand to Australia rather than any seismic shift in Irish performance levels.

"I'm not trying to clutch at straws. I'm as disappointed as anyone that we didn't get the win, but you have to build up experience too and we have some now," continued the former Munster coach.

Hooker Sean Cronin, lock Mick O'Driscoll, prop Tony Buckley, flanker Niall Ronan and wing Andrew Trimble were thrust into the pressure-cooker environments of New Zealand and Australia and, at times, responded encouragingly.

Out-half Jonathan Sexton has, arguably, moved past Ronan O'Gara as a vastly superior influence in defence and a zipper attacker, and the physically mature U20 captain Rhys Ruddock is on a fast track to becoming a major part of Ireland's future.

"When that experience will kick in I'm not sure, but we had to build it. There was absolutely no doubt in my mind that we had to do that," said Kidney.

This may be so. But Kidney was forced into these decisions. Given the option, he would have taken to the three-match tour with a full strength squad and foregone the need for development ahead of next year's World Cup.

"I've said it before, the more often we play these teams, the better we'll get. I didn't say we'd win them all, straight up," he stated.

"The more often we play them, the more used we'll get to be to playing them and the better we'll become once we stay strong in our belief in what we do".

Sadly, belief is absent without permission in an Ireland outfit, possibly, on the far side of a hill they climbed with thrilling dedication and glory over the past decade.

It could just be that in a sport of cycles for the small countries, Ireland's golden age might be near an end.

- Des Berry