Tony Ward:

IN TOKYO

AN emotional Rory Best admitted he was “really upset” by the realisation that his rugby days are over.

The curtain came down on the skipper’s playing career after his side were thumped 46-14 by New Zealand in the World Cup quarter-finals, their seventh consecutive loss at this stage of the competition.

While the inquest into what went wrong for a team so highly touted this time last year is only beginning, Best (right), as well as coach Joe Schmidt, won’t be around when the team take to the field against Scotland in next year’s Six Nations.

“We’re incredibly disappointed,” he said of the wholly one-sided contest. “We’ve got a lot of big characters in that changing room and it’s not often that you get deadly silence.

“There were some of those big men in tears. That’s what happens when everybody puts their heart and soul into something.

“You hope you’ll get time to reflect on what’s been an incredible few years for this team.

“It’s been a little bit of a roller-coaster of emotion, pressure, everything. But what’s been really good is the way this group has stuck together.

“We went into this game fully believing and expecting to win but it just didn’t happen for us.

All Blacks awesome but manner of defeat takes us back to darkest days

“I’m really upset with the thought that I’ll never pull on a green jersey again except to go and support.”

With Ireland out of the competition, the semi-finals line-up will be New Zealand versus England and Wales against South Africa.