Relief was the overriding emotion that overcame Ireland rugby fans after the announcement of a three game ban for Johnny Sexton over his conduct after May's Champions Cup final.
However, while he will not miss any World Cup games through suspension, Andy Farrell's preparation plans, in terms of the warm-up games, have been thrown awry.
Stephen Ferris sat down with us - in association with Ladbrokes.com - to discuss some of these challenges arising from Sexton's ban, such as his lack of game time/match fitness.
If you're Johnny Sexton you want to play one-and-a-half of those games in the lead up. You want to build a bit of match fitness. You want to take a bit of the contact, get yourself used to the physicality.
If he plays the first game against Romania, it's going to be six months since he stepped onto a rugby field, that's a hell of a long time.
You know he's 38 years of age, his birthday was only a couple of weeks ago.
So he's not getting any younger, and we all talk about the best players being able to step into any occasion and turn it on, but that's going to be really, really difficult for him to do, especially when it comes to a quarter-final against either France or New Zealand.
Stephen Ferris On The Consequences Of Johnny Sexton' Ban
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Another point of much discussion online has been the issue of Sexton's captaincy and his relationship with referees.
With James Ryan nailed onto start, it is a real possibility that the captaincy may change hands ahead of the biggest rugby tournament in the world.
"I think something like this will drive him even more," continued Ferris.
"The question is can Johnny Sexton stay fit for seven games in a row to win a World Cup, and I think the answer to that over the last number of years is that he can.
"And he is going to have to be managed, even though he has had this long, extended break through injury, through suspension, ban whatever you want to call it.
"And it's a talking point that I'm sure Andy Farrell doesn't want to discuss at every press conference he steps into; about Johnny Sexton and how he is feeling, and is he going to captain Ireland in the big game?
"And is there going to be a change in captaincy because of this situation. And who knows, but there's a lot of players in that Ireland team that can certainly take it on."
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