Ireland 13-9 England.
What a way to end a Six Nations Championship. Ireland denied England a second successive Grand Slam, a world record of Test wins and even denied them a real try scoring opportunity in 80 minutes of intense, hard hitting, incredible rugby.
It leaves us with a second place finish in the Six Nations, and two wins from two at the Aviva Stadium, and while it doesn't erase the disappointment of the performances in Edinburgh and Cardiff, it does leave a better taste in the mouth as this team begins to look ahead to the next season.
So exactly what did we learn from a hard fought and heroic four point win over England?
1) Ireland have all the strength in depth we need.
Last week, we complained about Joe Schmidt not putting enough faith in his bench. This week he didn't exactly have much choice. And once again, they delivered.
Gone are the days when a top class international team can rely solely on the presence of one man. In Ireland, you always fear that we may still have to.
Today, Conor Murray was missing, and it felt like doomsday. It turned out, as it did in Cardiff when he came on, that Kieran Marmion is a more than able deputy. He may not be Murray, but he did everything right today, and his tempo off the back of the ruck was a huge boost to the Irish attack which was so stagnant in Wales.
In theory, today's bench was as threadbare as any we've ever seen.
Andrew Conway was brought in for his international debut in the biggest match of the season. He certainly wouldn't have expected to get the entire second half to prove himself.
Dan Leavy, who's only cap before today was against Canada in November, only came into the squad minutes before kick off when Jamie Heaslip got injured in the warm up. Luke McGrath, with his one cap also against Canada, stepped up to the bench and did brilliantly in his few minutes at a crucial time. His box kick to the corner in the 78th minute when keeping possession was the obvious thing to do signals the new generation's desire and ability to play the game their way and not cower in the big moments, no matter their experience level.
This may the beginning of a new guard for Ireland. At the end of the game, as an England team who've been as explosive as any we've seen were plodding up the pitch in search of a game winning try they never looked like getting, Ireland had Conway, Leavy, McGrath, Niall Scannell, John Ryan, and Garry Ringrose all the pitch. Their combined caps before today? 17.
The strength in depth is epitomised by Peter O'Mahony's original place on the bench. His outstanding performance obviously showed he should have been a starter regardless of Heaslip's injury, but the fact that we can even consider having someone of O'Mahony's talents on the bench says it all, as Eddie Jones alluded to after the game.
"You can bring a guy like O'Mahony off the bench, you're not doing too badly. "
— Balls.ie (@ballsdotie) March 18, 2017
"He's a bloody good player" - Eddie Jones sums up Peter O'Mahony.
— Balls.ie (@ballsdotie) March 18, 2017
2) The best form of defence is attack
Ireland dominated possession (61%) and territory (63%) today, something we've been doing throughout the season.
We go through the phases in a deliberate and methodical way. It may not always be the prettiest to watch, and it's not exactly conducive to chasing a game (see last week!), but in terms of protecting a lead and playing a tight international Test Match in dodgy conditions, it's as effective a tactic as you can have.
England didn't get a sniff today. They had no try chances at all in the game, and even with Owen Farrell being perfect from the tee, only managed nine points. Ireland's tackling was hard hitting and they were aggressive at the break down as usual. They also sorted out the lineout and the scrum was brilliant, as it has been all season.
Both set pieces had their biggest test with five minutes to go, when O'Mahony stole an English lineout in the Irish 22, and the pack followed it up with as solid a scrum as you could hope for when the English threw everything at disrupting it. It was Tadhg Furlong's last action and he was treated to a standing ovation as he came off.
So while our defence and set piece should be rightly praised, the fact is that with all the possession Ireland enjoyed, England didn't have as many chances as they needed to force cracks. England made 138 tackles to Ireland's 99, and missed 15 to Ireland's 9.
Having so much of the ball and not putting more than 13 points on the board is undoubtedly disappointing and is a bigger and ongoing issue, but in today's game, it took huge pressure off the defence who were up against a fast and powerful attack.
3) We spoil English parties - That's what we do!
England started off this world record equaling 18-match win streak the game after their last visit to the Aviva, when Robbie Henshaw's try was enough for Ireland to win 19-9. Today, it was another low scoring affair, and again England didn't score a try.
A lot of people fancied Scotland at Twickenham last week, but they got their hooker sin binned after a few seconds and opened up their midfield for Jonathan Joseph and friends. Ireland, under Joe Schmidt, would never play into a team's hands like that.
You knew from the first minute Ireland wouldn't be steamrolled.
We did whisper during the week that England coming to Dublin for the Grand Slam doesn't always go swimmingly.
In 2001, England were in the middle of an historic run of blowing Grand Slams on the final day of the Championship when Foot and Mouth struck and they came to Dublin months after the Slam should have been locked up. Keith Wood and the boys put them to the sword that day.
Ten years later, and when England should have been a lot more wary of Ireland given the results in the intervening years, England recorded their Grand Slam video for Nike before the game and came to Dublin for an almighty hiding.
Today you got the impression there was a bit more trepidation about the Grand Slam being a fait accompli, but Ireland once again stuck to the script and made the English trophy presentation on a Dublin pitch a sombre affair.
Throw in the added bonus of stopping a world record run of Test Match wins at 18 for the second time in one season and it's even better.
We stopped New Zealand at 18, we stopped England at 18. No world records on our fucking watch!
— Balls.ie (@ballsdotie) March 18, 2017
4) Today's Irish crowd could well have won us the 2023 World Cup
Before the France game, the big screens in the Aviva put up a message about the Ireland's bid for the 2023 World Cup. That was it. France came out wearing their bid (literally) on their jersey. The atmosphere that day match the lackluster attempt at rallying the bid.
Today couldn't have been more different. From the anthems, the crowd were absolutely on fire. I've never experienced an atmosphere like it in the new stadium.
It was summed up by one moment mid way through the second half. With the game as tense as could be and the English starting to get on top, the English fans finally felt brave enough to try a chorus of "Swing Low Sweet Chariot". The response from the Irish fans was an incredible wall of white noise which lasted for about a minute before it evolved into The Fields of Athenry. Seconds later, Ireland won a turnover. The stadium exploded.
If any World Rugby's voters were in attendance today, or even watching on television, you'd have to think an incredible atmosphere like today's for a big match like this could do no harm whatsoever to the bid.
5) Future of this team not as bleak as feared last week
It's not a perfect team, by any means. The criticisms that were there last week still exist. No doubt tomorrow we'll be reading some hyperbole that blows it all out of proportion and there'll be a familiar backlash about as the Irish rugby team getting too much praise.
Leaving that tedious and continuous argument aside, Ireland have stopped two teams on historic winning streaks this season. We were the better team in every aspect today, as even Eddie Jones admitted following the game. England didn't play well but they were allowed to.
There are great performances in this Irish team, and they aren't reliant on one or two players the way we might have been just a few years ago.
It's a team in transition and adapting well to it. They lost their 8 and 9 today to injury. On top of that, there was a conscious changing of the guard in the second row and at full back. Both replacements in those positions had a huge impact today.
That's a lot of change for a team to handle so well. In the Championship, we've also established a new and very young centre partnership. Second place isn't a bad result for a team with so much going on.
But that said, they are not the finished product. You have to question if this team has built on their consistency levels over the last 12 months.
We've had some huge performances in that year, but we haven't backed them up.
We beat South Africa with 14 men but lost the following two weeks. We beat New Zealand in Chicago, but not in Dublin. We beat Australia, France and England but lost to Scotland and Wales.
Being capable of beating anyone on your day is not a terrible place for a rugby team to be in. It's makes them a scary team to play against and one of the world's best. But until we find a way to consistently perform at that level, it's hard to imagine a Grand Slam or a World Cup victory is in this team's future.
It's not a bad starting point though. There's a very interesting trip to Japan ahead this summer for the players not going to New Zealand with The Lions where more new faces could emerge. There'll be a lot more positivity about the team after today's performance.
