Ireland bowed out of the Women's Rugby World Cup at the quarter-final stage after a narrow defeat to France last weekend.
Ranked number five in the world coming into the tournament, that return was about par for the course but Scott Bemand and his team will know it’s a game they left behind.
That they gave all they had on the Sandy Park field will be some solace, however, a sense of regret will linger at the manner of the loss given there is a widespread consensus that France were there for the taking.
That will be hashed out over the next few weeks but a bigger question remains about how the IRFU will keep the 'green wave’ rolling.
While Ireland finished with the wooden spoon in the 2023 Six Nations, in the three years ahead of this World Cup tournament, they toured Japan, centralised contracts were introduced, top-quality coaches were hired and Sevens took a back seat.
The hiring of the highly-regarded Lynne Cantwell, Ireland women’s most capped player, as head of women’s strategy, is also an indication that the foundations laid will be built upon.
The 43-year-old, who will be inducted into the World Rugby Hall of Fame next week has already been busy in consultation with the clubs around the provinces, gauging their feelings about the current structures.
The announcement of the first standalone Test fixture at Aviva Stadium, the Six Nations game against Scotland, last week also put a bit more meat of the bone of the what the future may look like for the women’s programme.
It is, however, important to remember that the IRFU had a perfect springboard to build on eight years ago when the country hosted the Rugby World Cup, and they infamously failed to do so and that manifested itself in not making the 2021 edition, while two captains and other senior players stepped away, seemingly, in their prime.
This time it looks different but the proof will be in the pudding, and the IRFU needs to capitalise on the attention and goodwill built up over the last 12 months.
We asked a number of former internationals what they believed was the most important next step to ride the 'green wave'?
Fiona Coghlan (Grand Slam-winning captain 2013)
It's ensuring that the right pathways are in place. I still think the IRFU hasn’t decided what that is.
Is it the club game, the provinces? The Celtic Challenge Cup isn’t great because Wales and Scotland are using it for development and Ireland aren’t.
Fundamentally, we need more people involved at every level.
We need to know where the club stands, because at the moment, that’s where most people are picking it up.
We have to incorporate them into the conversation, which wasn’t necessarily done in the past.
I don’t know what the best model is but we need something to specifically suit the women’s game in Ireland.
There’s a huge opportunity in schools but then it’s very hard to get a new sport started.
I work in a school as a teacher and it’s very hard to get rugby in there.
You are competing with so many sport but there is potential. In terms of growth and numbers, linking with clubs is very important.
We have gone with a top-down model because that’s where you can get a quicker fix in growing a base but I don’t think you can say, 'oh, because there’s success there, we can just ignore the base’.
Both have to work together and obviously that’s difficult but that’s Lynne Cantwell’s role now.
Ali Miller (Scored 24 tries in 27 caps from 2010 to 2019)
The team preparation for the 2017 World Cup was very poor in comparison to 2014.
There was a lot of talk from the IRFU at the time but that was all media spin.
They talked about legacy but the coach went from full-time to part-time, no autumn internationals so it was all talk and spin.
The difference now is the girls have contracts, full-time coaches. If they really want to continue the 'green wave' they have to continue to employ technically good coaches.
Alex Codling [Ireland lineout coach] is moving on and he’s very good. They need to get other coaches at that level.
They need to somehow try and improve the All-Ireland League, they have the Women’s National Talent Squad, maybe fast-track some girls from smaller clubs, trying to know all the players in the country and identify talent.
They need to decide whether they are going to keep going with the Celtic Challenge because the games are not really competitive.
The big thing is that it’s not just media spin, it’s actually follow-through, not just doing the bare minimum, which they aren’t.
The IRFU has changed but it’s about being super ambitious and finding more Aoife Wafers, Béibhinn Parsons, Amee-Leigh Costigans, Sam Monaghans, trying to get more people playing rugby.
Hannah O'Connor (Ireland international between 2019 and 2024)
It is essential that the IRFU jump on the momentum created by both this World Cup as a whole and the Irish team in particular.
We didn't do that after the World Cup in 2017 and we saw the knock-on effect that had among some very dark years for Irish women's rugby.
For me the most important thing for this current team to have is the continued support, structures and backing within the high-performance centre - we've seen the benefits of that on pitch, and the girls themselves health-wise and wellbeing off pitch have been the better for it also.
Games and minutes are a must. We'll see the England-based girls reintegrate back fairly quickly to their club teams and I'd like to see our girls do the same.
The AIL is our top tier, but unfortunately is not given the attention and backing by the union thus leading to one-sided matches, and a lot of our home-grown talent jumping ship to play in the English Premiership to chase the more competitive fixtures.
We can get a lot from stealing some of the ideas from our neighbours on how to run a league and how to further grow and develop the talents we have on our own shores.
There needs to be that pathway from club to country; Celtic Challenge is not it.
As mentioned by Lindsay Peat on the RTÉ Rugby podcast last week, that needs to be an Under- 20 competition.
For me, it's a key time to kick on from where we got to now to keep building and pushing the ceiling.
With Lynne Cantwell at the helm, I feel we're in good hands and I just hope the IRFU listen to her, the clubs on the ground and the players themselves as to take the best route forward.
Sharon Lynch (Member of the Ireland team that reached the 2014 World Cup semi-final)
This squad seems like a happier bunch, content, a good tight unit. They will feel that they have redeemed themselves and this World Cup is a step forward.
I remember our World Cup aftermath, you feel like you are left on your own. You go back to your clubs and family and friends, and you're completely overwhelmed by the polar opposite of what you came out of.
I know some of these girls will be under contract and go back to that environment. They’ll get strength from each other and hopefully resources from the IRFU.
They are going to be looking at the next competition, but they are going to have to review the last three weeks and steady the ship, look at the squad and their mental health.
There’s going to be different layers to this, managing the current batch and deciding who is going to be next squad.
I’d hope there’s no downgrade in backroom resources, that the standards are going to be higher and higher, so more people want to get into managing women’s teams.
Some resources may fall away because, being a World Cup, they throw everything at it.
The Sevens thing is the big question – how is that pathway going to work?
Do players like Béibhinn Parsons and Eve Higgin, who’ve become household names over this World Cup, stay with the squad in the Six Nations?
We know they started their journeys as a result of the 2014 success and we want to see the next batch of girls see that they can play in a full Aviva, like hopefully the Scotland game will be.
Until we hear more about how Sevens works in a non-World Cup year, we don’t know.
Maybe there’s no right answer, maybe it’s different year on year. That’s a headache for Lynne but no better woman to tackle that.
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