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DECLAN KIDNEY remained heroically stoic. The Ireland coach again expressed his wonderful capacity to temper the excesses of, well, us. You tell him ‘Rob Kearney soared’. He’ll answer, ‘well what about Cian Healy?’ You say ‘Sexton came of age’, he’ll say, ‘maybe Ronan would have kicked the penalties Jonathan missed’. You say ‘fantastic team performance’, he’ll tell you ‘they didn’t score any tries’. You say ‘what about O’Driscoll?’, he’ll say, ‘did you see Seán O’Brien?’

There is never a flare-up moment with Kidney, never a conversation when he goes wildly off message. His instinct is to spread the love and maybe the occasional pain too. It is to preach restraint. His first career as a teacher was in part about telling young fellas not to get too carried away with themselves.