As the compelling contest between Ireland and South Africa played out at the Stade de France on Saturday night, it was almost easy to forget that this was just a pool game.
In the end, Andy Farrell's side came out on top by a five-point margin and both the Irish and Springboks will fancy their chances of getting to the World Cup final - a place many of the current South African squad got to four years ago on route to victory while Ireland have still to negotiate the perennial barrier of a quarter-final.
If the two teams are to meet again during this tournament - neither side will even be thinking that far ahead given the tough challenges to come between now and then - it can only happen with a second date on World Cup final day itself at the same St Denis location that played host to a classic.
While Ireland hold the bragging rights, former international Stephen Ferris expects South Africa to make tweaks after learning lessons from Saturday night, although he still expects Farrell's team to go all the way.
"It feels like if Ireland were playing South Africa again that I'd be slightly worried, just because they're able to back it up week in, week out at that level where Ireland usually would be playing Italy this week or Wales at home," the former Ireland and Ulster back-row told RTÉ 2fm's Game On, contrasting the intensive gauntlets that the Rugby Championship and Six Nations can provide to the world's current number one and two sides.
"The physicality that was shown, (South Africa) will have a lot of learnings from it as well no doubt.
"If they go into a Rugby World Cup final - if they get there - with a place kicker who they can rely on in Handre Pollard, they might have a specialised hooker on the bench else as well when that time comes.
"They can absolutely no doubt beat Ireland on their day but Ireland have shown they can absolutely no doubt beat South Africa on any given day.
"So I'm still saying that Ireland are going to win the Rugby World Cup and why not because they're the best team in the world, beaten the reigning World Cup champions, we're unbeaten this season, beaten everybody in front of us, went away to New Zealand and won a tour, and with a fresh, healthy squad that's getting battle-hardened week in, week out.
"So it will be a hard call to bet against us, put it that way."
South Africa may have left some points behind them on Saturday due to the errant place-kicking of out-half Manie Libbok and long-range penalty attempts from scrum-half Faf de Klerk.
But Ferris also feels that Ireland would also tweak some of their decision-making in attack if it was a Rugby World Cup final on the line, such as Johnny Sexton going for penalties to keep the scoreboard ticking over rather than kicking to touch to chase try opportunities as opted for at the Stade de France.
"I think if that was a World Cup final, Johnny might have taken ten paces back and put it on a kicking tee and knocked it over and got the scoreboard ticking," he said.
"I was listening to Stirling Mortlock on the radio last night on the way back up the road from Dublin after the Scotland-Tonga game and he was talking about scoreboard pressure and how much that has an impact on the psyche and mentality of the opposition.
"As the game went on last night with the Wales-Australia game, that scoreboard pressure absolutely squeezed Australia and it forced them into mistakes and it forced them into playing from deep.
"It was just continuous throughout the game and Ireland I'm sure will find themselves in a similar situation in a quarter-final.
"Will they kick to the corner or will they knock it over? And to be honest, I'm not actually sure.
"Because even when Rory Best was captain a few years ago, any time there was a penalty, it was 'kick to the corner, kick to the corner'. It didn't matter who the opposition were and Ireland were the ones who started to trend and a lot of other teams have done it as well.
"It's going to be an interesting one but if I was on the pitch I'd be hoping for Johnny to knock it over and take the three points and then hit the reset button again, go back, get the restart and get out of Dodge."
