The Six Nations began with a romping win over England and dreams of a third straight title. It has come to an end with questions on where this Ireland team go next.
A nervy final day win in Rome - clinging on for a bonus-point 22-17 win despite 20 minutes with a man advantage - pretty well summed up the change in mood around the Irish camp as the tournament has progressed.
Though this year's campaign has brought another Triple Crown and saw Simon Easterby's side win four games from five, there is understandably a sense of disappointment hanging over the conclusion to this campaign.
Of course, the odd one out of those five games was last weekend's defeat to France in Dublin, the game which will come to define the 2025 Six Nations for this group.
After Saturday's win over Italy, the Virgin Media panel ran the rule over Ireland's Six Nations campaign and naturally came back to focus on the heavy defeat to the French last Saturday.
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Rob Kearney and Shane Horgan disagree on Ireland's Six Nations campaign
Ahead of their coverage of Wales v England on Saturday afternoon, the Virgin Media panel assessed the conclusion to Ireland's Six Nations campaign.
SH: 🗣 "The momentum was with Ireland."
RK: 🗣 "I don't actually agree with that."
RK: 🗣 "We didn't come close to beating France."
Shane & Rob look back on last week's defeat to France that ended Ireland's Grand Slam hopes.#ITAvIRE | #GuinnessM6N pic.twitter.com/ZaoBmDsdIY— Virgin Media Sport (@VMSportIE) March 15, 2025
Shane Horgan was first up, and said that it was only natural that the disappointment of last week's loss to France would have been hanging over Ireland going to Rome this weekend.
He went on to suggest that Ireland would have won against France on another day when they had capitalised on the momentum swing at half-time.
It was an argument that Rob Kearney had no time for, saying that Ireland could not afford to sit on "what if" questions.
Horgan: "I think Ireland will be very disappointed not to have won a Grand Slam this year, despite these issues that we've raised. After the Sheehan try [against France], the momentum was with Ireland, France's best player was off, that was when Ireland should have gone on. We've seen that story told many times by Ireland, ultra-professional, tighten it up, ruck hard, brilliant defence, and squeeze the opposition out. What actually happened was the opposite. France squeezed us and we buckled."
Kearney: "I don't actually agree with that. I think we got blown away in those 15-20 minutes and we had nothing to stop it. We did have the momentum after 42-3 minutes but when that pack came on, we looked like we had no answers to what was being thrown at us."
Horgan: "One of the things is I think we have to not bury the lead here. We were playing down to 14 men for 20 minutes of that game. No wonder we looked fatigued."
Kearney: "Yeah, I get that, but we have to take those variables in on the day as well. It's all well and good saying, 'On another day we should have,' but we didn't even come close to beating France that day."
It's hard to argue with Shane Horgan's point that Ireland will be disappointed to have come away with anything less than a Grand Slam from this year's Six Nations.
However, Rob Kearney's argument that they will have to be ruthless in assessing their own shortcomings is also timely as Ireland assess where they turn next.
The team Andy Farrell takes charge of this November is likely to be changed dramatically from the one he left behind last winter, both in morale and perhaps in personnel.
How he manages that situation going forward is likely to define the upcoming push to the 2027 World Cup.
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