After Ireland beat the USA last November, someone hit off the pause button on the green machine.
Nobody, it seemed, knew why, but it happened. And yesterday, with that 26-14 win against France, Ireland hit reset.
It would be wrong to suggest that the champions beat a good French side but it would be equally incorrect to hold Ireland to account for French inadequacies.
"Ireland didn't give us a chance to do anything in the first half," said France coach Jacques Brunel of the 40-minute period that saw the hosts claim 94% of the territory and 82% of the ball possession.
Incidentally, such was the mood that the translator didn't even bother to translate 95% of Brunel and captain Guilhem Guirado's press conference into English.
This game was always about Ireland, who, after passable wins over Scotland and Italy, were sailing too close to the wind for comfort.
In what was their penultimate competitive game before the World Cup, Ireland had to stump up.
Failure was simply not an option given that another poor showing would have meant trying to rediscover their form in the white hot cauldron of a Principality Stadium demanding a grand slam.
Ireland scored 19 points in the first half. It could have been double that.
"They are always a frustration," said Joe Schmidt of the chances that went a-begging.
"Garry Ringrose might score that 10 times over," he said of the centre's fumble on the line.
Prior to that, Cian Healy came over all Conor Murray (reacall Munster's Champions Cup win over Toulon last year) by spotting the ball was available over the French line.
"It was an incredibly smart decision by him to have a go at that ball because he was onside he can come through there."
His hand, however, made contact too low and knocked the ball on.
But Ireland were making the plays that were missing in the last three games: the phase-building, maintaining the ball in contact, the kicking, the chasing, all a vast improvement.
"I don't think I've seen in the last six years a team control like we did in that first half. We kept that pressure on [France] and to keep that pressure on for 40 minutes spoke volumes about the intensity and energy that we brought to our game."
Sure there were some handling errors but overall it was exactly what was needed.
"It's taken a while but there was a bit of our rhythm back today," the coach said as the elusive "cohesion" appeared.
"I know there's been some frustration externally, it's been internal as well.
"We've been frustrated that we haven't been as cohesive as we've liked."
Much of that had to do with Conor Murray and Johnny Sexton humming in the half-backs.
The vaunted pairing had borne much of the criticism of recent weeks but, with almost all the first-choice forwards in front of them, looked like the world-class operators that they are.
"There's been a lot of criticism aimed at a couple of our players," said captain Rory Best.
"But when we look at the way we've been helping them and the way we've been taking the pressure off or not taking the pressure off by the way we've been setting up in our attack shape .
"That was something we needed to do. We are best when we go and attack situations.
"It was nice to see us taking a big step towards what we expect from one another."
Ireland's lineout was again the nub of the attack and they won 17 of 18 throws.
What was different this week? Nothing about the preparation anyway, according to man of the match James Ryan
"No, the build-up was the same as it is every week" he said, Terminator-style.
"We reviewed our last game and looked at things we can be better at and then we previewed the opposition."
We'll probably never know what was spoken about in camp but the pressure was building.
"The mini-camp in Belfast helped us a bit," said Best when asked about why they looked so much more relaxed on the field yesterday.
"It was nice to get away, we went out for dinner on the Wednesday night [after Italy].
"Sometimes when you are a settled squad you kind of forget that you do have to spend a little bit of time together. It was nice, it didn't have the pressure of a game [coming up]."
Whatever happened, whatever was said, whatever went on, it had the desired result.
In a strange way the result in Cardiff is not as important now. Getting beaten by a grand-slam chasing outfit, who will benefit from an extra day's rest and who accounted for England two weeks ago, is nothing in the overall picture as long as the performance is there.
"We need the confidence," admitted Schmidt, who knows that England are likely to finish above Ireland no matter what happens in Wales. "We need to get on the front foot.
"Wales in Cardiff is always a complicated fixture for us."
"We started the championship on a really flat note. It's been a great reminder that you get nothing back in a Test match. You can't go 'we missed that opportunity, can we play again tomorrow'.
"You get one window and you can't just open it a little bit to let the breeze in. You've got to open it right up and through it.
"We've said all along, it's a bit similar to what we'll contend with (at the World Cup) with the six-day turnaround from a team in blue to a team in red. It's not something we want to miss a beat with now.
"I'm sure the Welsh boys were sitting back watching with their feet up today, they'll be primed for us next week."
This Six Nations was always about priming for the World Cup. After getting stuck on pause, Ireland have hit the reset button.
