Last Saturday's deeply dispiriting loss at Murrayfield gave Ireland a novel, but no less scant consolation: the tournament's first losing bonus point. A loss in the opening game of the Championship is always particularly galling: it always means the loss of a Grand Slam, and chances are that the Triple Crown slinks off in the Holy Grail's shadow, too.
Yet the Championship, we are reminded, is still on. And if you go looking for positives, chances are you'll find them. In an example of the perverse solace which we seek: Scotland looked sufficiently vulnerable against us in the second-half to mean their finishing ahead of us is not a guarantee.
Elsewhere, in Rome, Italy looked poor enough to give us a shot at a full five points this weekend, while Wales' misfiring gives us the intangible benefit of confidence ahead of Cardiff and the tangible boost of their not securing a bonus-point. We knew exactly which French team would turn up against England - the side that are individually lethal but lack the coherence to win the competition - and England were surprisingly underwhelming.
But is there any relief to be found in history? Let's find out, and have a look at Ireland's record after their first six nations game.
Since Italy arrived to create the Six Nations, Ireland have lost their opening game on just three occasions.
In terms of the bigger picture: Ireland have never won the Championship in years in which they've lost the opening game: in 2000, we finished third, with six points; in 2004 we ended in second with eight points, two behind Grand Slam winners France; while 2012 saw us finish third again, albeit on five points, level with the French.
Nor have we ever won the Championship in the years we lost to Scotland: second in 2001 and 2010, and a ghastly fifth in 2013.
In the shorter term, however, we have quite a good record of recovering from an opening day defeat. We have never failed to win after an opening day defeat.
In 2000, we were hammered 50-18 against England, before rallying well to finish third on six points. We ran up 44 points on the Scots and 60 points on the Italians, before the highlight: that O'Driscoll-inspired victory in Paris. Alas, the campaign ended on a sour note: with a four-point defeat to Wales.
Four years later, we lost on the opening day once again, this time to France: a 35-17 reversal at Landsdowne Road. Again, we responded well: a 36-15 win at home to Wales preceded a victory away to England, rounding off the competition with wins against Scotland and Italy.
Ireland then went unbeaten on day one for eight years: until a narrow 23-21 defeat to Wales left us facing into a trip to Paris off the back of a defeat for the first time, but for the frosty weather intervene: the game was postponed. Instead, we made the return trip after the customary hammering of Italy (42-10) and we began our series of drawing with France: this one finished 17-17. 2012 proved to be the first year Ireland finished with fewer than six points after losing our opening game: a heavy defeat at Twickenham on the final day left us in third position.
So, not necessarily all doom and gloom. Furthermore, the bonus points give a slightly larger margin for rectifying the errors of Scotland. But even that added comfort does not leave another defeat permissible.
