It was the World Cup final that never happened but France and Ireland will get a chance to duel it out on Friday week in Marseille.
A sold-out Orange Velodrome will stage the opening game of the Guinness Six Nations and the match-up that many had hoped to see last October.
It was only those pesky All Blacks at their backs-to-the-wall best and a substandard – given what had gone before – performance from most of the Ireland team, as well as a blocked-down conversion by Cheslin Kolbe in the other quarter-final that prevented a France-Ireland grand finale.
Never mind Argentina or England, they were just details, so the prevailing wisdom went.
Andy Farrell insists he's over it, while the squad’s World Cup review took place on Monday. The real tale of how the players have digested the 28-24 defeat three and half months ago will be how they front up against Les Bleus.
"Loads of us have had different parts of our careers that have had tough defeats and they’re the ones that make the rest of it better," new captain Peter O’Mahony said at the tournament launch on Monday.
"You’ve got a decision to make: do you want that game to make you better or do you want it to hang over you?"
If Ireland were hurt, you can only imagine the raw disappointment that the hosts felt. A team built to win the Webb Ellis on home soil, beaten by a point by eventual champions South Africa in the best game of rugby union ever played.
"The defeat to South Africa was hard for everyone," said Gregory Alldritt, who takes over the captaincy from Antoine Dupont, the star who has decided to forsake the tournament in favour of a shot at Sevens Olympic gold.
"Little by little, we’re in the process of digesting.
"On a psychological side, we’ve worked on [it with a team] for four years.
"To take the lessons from them. It’s what we’ll do from the opening weeks, to use the failure to grow."
Neither side, it appears, has the sole proprietorship on sports grief.
As much as Farrell wants to dismiss the idea of clean slates, it’s at least a new chapter with some of the main characters missing.
Dupont, as mentioned, has opted out; Johnny Sexton and Keith Earls have retired.
"Antoine’s idea of playing in the Olympics has been in the line for two years," explained France head coach Fabien Galthie.
"A project with the [French federation] and his club. We’re not surprised by it.
"Antoine Dupont is a star of the French team, like Greg [Alldritt] and many other players are, they have obtained a notoriety."
Ireland, unbeaten for 17 games prior to the loss to New Zealand, are the defending champions.
Galthie won’t be planning for a hungover Ireland to rock up under the Friday night lights.
"They’re second in the world, even if they lost in quarter-finals," he said.
"They’ve lost one match in two years. You just have to look at their record over the two years.
"They’re a formidable, amazing team.
"The Six Nations is always a feeling of back to school. Be that to start something new or continue.
"I spoke about Ireland, having lost once in two years, we lost just twice in two years.
"It’s been interesting for us to lean on the collective experience. We consider that we’re on day two after the South Africa game. We will lean on that match, we don’t start from scratch.
"It’s something new with continuity."
Farrell (above) himself spoke of the defending champions' "responsibility" to put the World Cup heartache behind them.
"The journey continues," he told RTÉ Sport.
"If you look at what we've got, first game in Marseille, unbelievable stadium, unbelievable atmosphere.
"A lot of the Irish who had flights for the semi-final, I heard a lot of them transferred it to Marseille so they're expecting a performance from us.
"We've got to stand up to responsibilities like that."
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