While Ireland will know that nothing was won during their victory over South Africa, the performance and result did make a statement of intent about their ambitions in this year's Rugby World Cup.
Of course, we have been here before. Ireland have had quite a few memorable wins during the pool stage of the competition in the past, only to then come up short when we got down to knockout rugby.
In saying that, something feels different this time around. An Irish team has never seemed so well-prepared to make a deep run in the tournament, having seemingly shaken off the ghosts of World Cups past. A tough draw awaits them in the quarter-finals, but the team will have every confidence that they can advance beyond that stage.
In fact, many are already anticipating that Ireland and South Africa will meet again in a World Cup final. It would certainly be a remarkable spectacle.
Rob Kearney confident Ireland would beat South Africa in final
Ireland may have come out on top in their pool stage clash, but that certainly does not guarantee that they would defeat South Africa once again if they were to meet in a World Cup final.
The Springboks missed a number of kicks during the course of the game, and with Handre Pollard set to come back into the fold to ease those concerns, some have suggested they would be big favourites in a rematch against the Irish as a result.
However, as Rob Kearney points out, it's not as if Ireland did not have issues of their own on Saturday night.
Speaking on Virgin Media, he said the fixing the line-out was a must for Andy Farrell's side over the remainder of the tournament. In fact, he went as far as to say that they would beat South Africa in a potential rematch if they managed to do so.
Ireland's lineouts - why did it malfunction? And how important is it to their gameplan?
🤔 Rob Kearney analyses last night's action against South Africa.#RSAvIRE | #RWC2023 pic.twitter.com/zzzo8TJVK6— Virgin Media Sport (@VMSportIE) September 24, 2023
It was completely obvious on the evening that Ireland's line-out completely malfunctioned. However, to my earlier point, when they did get it going they caused some real damage...
You're moving the point of attack, moving the big South African pack because they don't like to be moved around, they love square-on collisions...
Can Ireland get around the South African defence? On this occasion (in the video) they did and on another occasion I think Caelan Doris doesn't cough it up and we score a try there...
We saw the line-out malfunction, but when it did work for them they can be lethal.
Back to my earlier point about South Africa not being good off the tee, if Ireland can get this line-out going, they will beat them on World Cup final day.
The line-out will prove to be key for Ireland over the remainder of the tournament, but Kearney's assertion that sorting out that issue will be enough to get a win over South Africa in World Cup final is a massive shout.
Rassie Erasmus and the rest of the Springboks coaching staff are sure to have learned quite a bit from that game and are unlikely to meet some of their mistakes over the coming games. The former Leinster fullback would also disagree with Matt Williams' claim that this game was a coaching disaster from a South African point of view.
From an Irish perspective, they still have the sizeable challenges of Scotland and possibly New Zealand to tackle before they can even consider the possibility of reaching the final.
The rest of the tournament should make for very interesting viewing.
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