USA head coach Eddie O'Sullivan talks to the Daily Telegraph ahead of his side's Churchill Cup campaign.
"It’s four years ago now that Ireland players and management were talking confidently of a best ever World Cup performance in France and didn’t bat an eyelid when some critics suggest an appearance in the final might not be beyond them.
"And why not? The way they put England to the sword that year at Croke Park and hammered South Africa and Australia the previous autumn as Lansdowne Road suggested that an outstanding generation were ready to deliver on the very biggest stage. This was their moment.
"Everything seemed set fair but what transpired was a pretty dismal performance in the pool stages where they struggled horribly to defeat lowly Georgia and Namibia in Bordeaux and never remotely got to grips with Argentina and France at the Stade de France. Yes, it was the so-called Pool of Death but nobody expected Ireland to corpse like that."
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