World Cup hangover. What World Cup hangover?
Back in France, Ireland were able to stave off any delirium tremens by consuming the hair of the dog that bit them last October.
It was Les Bleus who seemed to pay the price for too much of their own variant of vin rouge.
There's no doubt, despite all the protestations from Andy Farrell, that defeat to the All Blacks hurt more than most – the players themselves admitted it.
Both France and Ireland had to nurse painful wounds for the last three and a half months and evidently it was the Six Nations champions who healed faster.
"In all honesty, it had nothing to do with it. I got asked the question before the game on TV there about putting [the World Cup] behind you, it didn't even register," argued Farrell as he drank in the success of a comprehensive 38-17 victory on Friday night.
"It's not something...we talk about hangovers etc, there's no hangovers with us.
"There is a realisation of where we're at and where we need to go to next, and what we need to learn, and that's it.
"Hangovers are for tomorrow. We're three months down the line, you know. That's a big hangover if you can't get over it in that time.
"We talk about our past performances all the time, sometimes we go back three years to say 'we learned this' or whatever.
"So of course, we learned big things from the All Blacks defeat but it's not a hangover, it's just the next step in how we progress going forward as a team and that's how it should be."
Captain Peter O’Mahony, who wasn’t replaced after his sin-binning ended on 63 minutes, hailed his side’s composure, all the more pleasing after Farrell had alluded to the team being affected by the environment – during their last two visits to France in the Six Nations.
"Look, we've been on a journey for a long time and we've had lots of great experiences and banked them, and we've had some tough ones and banked them as well," said the 34-year-old, who won his 102nd Ireland cap.
"It's always about getting better and tonight was another step for the group and we spoke about it being a huge occasion for us.
"But at the same time it's just another game for us and how calm and composed we could really be in an environment like that out there, it was a great test for the group.
"It felt good at times, certainly the first 30 minutes felt really, really good, it felt like we were all over them defensively and our attack was rolling, our lineout was going really well.
"So there were parts of it that felt really good but that last 10 minutes before half-time, we backed up a couple of penalties and then you're under pressure against teams that good.
"We talked about taking our chances, certainly we did that at times but we put ourselves under pressure at times as well.
"So we've plenty to work on but there were parts of the game that it felt like, from an international point of view, a good performance."
Lock Joe McCarthy was a tour de force on his first taste of Six Nations action taking the man of the match nod.
However, his second row partner, Tadhg Beirne (above, c), could easily have pipped him for the award.
The 32-year-old Munster player took seven lineouts, made 12 carries, two linebreaks and scored Ireland’s second try.
There had been some debate about the make-up of the back-five forwards in advance of the game but Farrell’s selection was proven fully justified.
"He's some rugby player, isn't he? He's across absolutely everything," said Farrell, whose side are now firm favourites to win the championship with home matches to come against Italy (Sunday 3pm), Wales and Scotland and a trip to England.
"His calling in the lineout was really composed, he had a charge down there.
"He's all over every single ball that he sees on the floor and for not the biggest of second rows, just how he navigates himself around the pitch allows him to be a special player for us.
"And he's been doing that time and time again over the last few years and he continues to get better."
