When the end came, it was swift and it was dignified. No blood on the hotel carpet, no swinging doors. Eddie O’Sullivan didn’t even have to leave his home in Moylough, County Galway.

Last Tuesday evening, he called his agent John Baker and told him to arrange a meeting with IRFU chief executive Philip Browne. By 3.30 the following afternoon, the two men had thrashed out a deal which resulted in O’Sullivan receiving a pay-off in the region of €500,000.

O’Sullivan, who had been in charge for 78 tests over seven seasons, made sure it was he who pulled the plug. Most likely he would have been told to go at the review meeting which was scheduled for this week. But it suited everyone’s purposes if he could be seen to resign – the union didn’t want to sack a coach whose four-year contract extension wasn’t due to kick in until next month.

So O’Sullivan’s PR people made one polite, respectful statement and then the union did likewise. All very civilised. But this was the easy bit. How the union handles its succession strategy is the real test – assuming it has a strategy, of course.

There is an obvious urgency to the matter, seeing as Ireland tour New Zealand and Australia in June and this is an ideal bedding-in period for the new coach. But there are few outward signs of urgency in Lansdowne Road.

Whereas Rob Andrew hires and fires on behalf of the RFU, and Welsh chief executive Roger Lewis sacked Gareth Jenkins the day after his team was knocked out of the world cup, the IRFU has an amateur three-man appointments committee which won’t convene until next week.

Meanwhile, Conor O’Shea, the man who should be overseeing the management of Ireland’s professional team, has been headhunted from the RFU by the English Institute of Sport to be its national director. The timing of the announcement last week can only have embarrassed the IRFU.

The union has at least contacted agents in the UK in a bid to form a shortlist. Munster’s Declan Kidney is the only home-grown candidate and in order to justify overlooking him, the union will feel it has to choose a high-profile coach with a record of success. They will find few contenders available right now.

Jake White has ruled himself out, as has Pat Howard, who will shortly retire from his post as the Australian Rugby Union’s high performance unit. On Friday, he said: "I'm very flattered but I am out of the coaching caper - at least in the short term. It has been mostly paper talk but there has been some interest expressed from their end. But I am not going to pursue it."

John Mitchell was next on our list but the former All Blacks coach gave the impression of someone who was happy guiding the Western Force to unprecedented heights in the Super 14.

The 43-year-old Mitchell speaks fondly of his days in Garryowen in the 1990s when he also worked briefly as part of the Ireland management team but said the timing was wrong.

“I’m contracted to the Western Force right through to 2011 so the timing at the moment is not ideal but never say never,” said Mitchell.”

Wayne Smith is also tied into a contract with the New Zealand RFU and is seen as a reluctant number one anyway. The Ewen McKenzies and David Nuciforas may soon be out of contract but the union would find it hard to justify to the public hiring a Super 14 coach who is virtually unheard of in this part of the world.

They would sooner look at Mike Ruddock, formerly of Leinster and now at Worcester or Alan Gaffney, about to leave Saracens and the one individual to express an interest so far. Or they could go for Kidney.

He remains the bookies’ favourite yet there are union committee men who swear he won’t even come close to being appointed. The 49-year-old’s main political opponents are in Ulster and Leinster, provinces with which he has had brief associations and in Leinster’s case, an acrimonious parting.

Kidney can rub people up the wrong way. Munster players groan when it looks like he will be taking a drill in training – his technical skills are ordinary at best. On the positive side he is a winner. He nannies the players in a way O’Sullivan didn’t. He’s a brilliant organiser, a good selector and a decent tactician.

And appointing him has certain attractions for the IRFU king-makers. It would create some movement within the stagnant Irish coaching structure, which provides no obvious pathway for talented young coaches.

Give the job to Kidney and the IRFU is seen to appoint from within. He removes the risk of appointing a foreigner who comes in making all sorts of expensive demands.

He wants the job too. There is a certain parallel here with his accession to the Munster job over a decade ago, when both Andy Leslie and John Bevan showed interest but them turned the job down. As Kidney would subsequently put it, he only got the job because nobody else wanted it.

The truth is that the Irish rugby team desperately needs a new voice or voices, with fresh ideas and no respect for reputations. Kidney’s voice is all too familiar for at least half of the current squad but as the IRFU stumbles around in its search for a solution to a messy problem, they may bump into him.