Ireland burn out at the World Cup  'The rule changes knackered
us up completely'  There are two reasons why we didn't go
further in that competition: the heat and our formation.  On the
eve of the World Cup Fifa changed the rules so that the
goalkeeper could no longer pick up the ball, and that knackered
us up completely. Our game was all about playing the ball behind
our opponents' defence and putting them under pressure, but we
wanted their keeper to pick the ball up if our attacks broke
down because while the ball was in his hands you had a few
seconds to readjust your players and get back into position.  If
we pushed up and the goalkeeper kicked the ball straight away,
he could knock it behind us - and our centre-backs weren't the
quickest.  That rule, that simple little rule, totally knackered
everything. Our last game was against Holland, who played a
possession game. They didn't give the ball away. We weren't like
that, but you can't have people running all over the place
chasing the ball in the temper