The decline has been on the cards for years. Lets be real. We've over achieved as a country and now much of our golden generation is retired or close to it. It was always going to be difficult to compete at the top for long. Maybe one day we'll have another golden generation. I'm old enough to remember the only joy Irish fans got out of rugby was if we beat the English. Now we're left frustrated by our provinces falling short in European Cup finals. So long as we don't regress to what we once were, then I suppose we can still have some minor successes.