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Sunday's last minute defeat to France was a heartbreaker. The game never looked winnable after the first 20 minutes but it went to a situation where Ireland actually had the game won with just seconds on the clock.
So in that sense it was a huge disappointment but the number of matches that are won and lost in the last five minutes in rugby is incredible. France had to score the try and they went down and got it. All Ireland had to do was secure possession off the final kick-off and that was the game done. But that's rugby.
It was a huge psychological blow because, while chances of a Triple Crown and Championship are similar in other years, this is the year that Ireland really wanted the Grand Slam. And it's now going to be another two years before they get France and England at home so that chance evaporated in just 30 seconds on Sunday.
You can't look at this game in isolation. You've got to look at both games so far and, apart from the early try against Wales, Ireland were relatively sluggish for the rest of the first half in Cardiff and similarly so at Croke Park.
I don't necessarily think it was the occasion. I just think France have the ability to dominate teams when they play and you've got to take your hats off to them. They've probably played the best 15 or 20 minutes that we've seen from a touring team in a long time.
And after what we saw in the first 20 minutes, you've got wonder about what Ireland can expect at the World Cup against France, in France?
They just denied Ireland everywhere; they were on top in the scrum, in the lineout, they were giving the ball plenty of whip, they were creating space and every time they had the ball they had an overlap somewhere on the field. In a sense, Ireland just couldn’t get their hands on the ball, and it's an old cliché, but if you don't have the ball you can't do anything. Ireland just had to defend.
If you look at the way the French defended early on, you could see they were looking to expose Brian O'Driscoll's absence. They came up very flat and very physical. The first three or four times that Ireland tried to run the ball through the middle of the backs, through Shane Horgan and Gordon D'Arcy, they were knocked down.
When you're playing against a guy like O'Driscoll, if you push up too fast and too hard he has the ability to step you. And while Horgan is a big, powerful guy, he certainly doesn't have that same threat as O'Driscoll and the French knew it. It was only when the game broke up a bit later on and Ireland started to get some more second-phase ball that the French looked vulnerable.
I thought Isaac Boss did reasonably well given the conditions, especially in the second half. Having said that, his passes weren't as crisp as Peter Stringer's and he does have to take one or two more steps before he passes it. The breaking game that many were expecting from him didn't really materialise either, but that wasn't his fault.
A lot of the ball he got, especially in the first half, was on the back foot, while Ireland played a different type of game after the break, more a mauling game with O'Gara putting them into good field positions. Boss didn't really have a chance to show us what he is best at which is his fringe breaking.
Having said that, would the experience of Peter Stringer and his crisper pass have made a difference in this match? It's hard to say, but psychologically going in without O'Driscoll and Stringer was a huge blow. But in the context of how the game actually unfolded, it may not have made that much of a significant difference to the outcome because Ireland were still 20 seconds from winning it anyway.
Looking ahead to the visit of England to Croke Park on Saturday week, I was over in Twickenham on Saturday and I didn't see anything to worry Ireland. There were significantly more line breaks on view in the Irish match. There was no creativity in the backline.
The only thing against Ireland now is that they need to get their lips off the ground after the psychological blow of losing in the manner they did and get ready for the English.
Brian Ashton's men, with two wins under their belts, have a bit of momentum and the very fact that Tindall got injured may play against Ireland as they might bring in a guy like Tait, who's a bit quicker. At the moment, you wouldn't really see England being able to score too many tries through their backs but they have a decent pack.
There's still a Championship to win, which would be a great achievement, as England certainly have the ability to turn France over at Twickenham, so Ireland would want to keep hitting away.
The occasion itself was brilliant. I would have liked to have seen more colour and I think had a few flags or a bit of green been handed out beforehand I think it would have given the match more of an edge.
The Heineken Cup final in Cardiff, with all the red jerseys and the flags, made it a special occasion and I think a similar amount of colour could have given the Irish team something extra.
But as a stadium and as a crowd, it was excellent for rugby players and supporters to be mixing with GAA people. You're probably looking at 20,000 people there who may have been attending their first rugby match at that level so it was great for the game.
It was a good game too and it was on a knife-edge until the end. It wasn't as if it was a boring, dour old rugby game that would incline people not to come back, but most of the GAA fans I spoke to loved it and it was great to see so many GAA legends, members of U2 and actors there too.
It was a real social occasion and just a pity that Ireland couldn't hold on for another minute and give the memorable occasion the victory it craved.
Brent Pope was in conversation with Shane Murray
