The tear-flecked eyes of Ireland captain Gus McCarthy in his television post-match interview revealed the emotional tariff.
Ireland have endured so much in this tournament yet fought through the trauma and the tragedy only to come up short against France in the Under-20 World Championship final. The defeat doesn’t define them, they have made their country proud.
They came up against a brilliant French side, deserving winners, dominant in most facets of the game.
Ireland had a glimmer of hope when trailing 17-14 at the interval but it was quickly expunged by two French quick-fire tries while Richie Murphy’s side had a man in the bin. The winners tagged on a couple more at the end against opposition out on their feet; it gave the final scoreline, 50-14, a harsh look but only for a moment.
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Ireland, the Six Nations Grand Slam champions, made it to the final of the World Championship, won eight, drew one and lost just one of their 10 matches across two tournaments. For most of the journey they were a joy to watch.
Murphy tried to put the season in context. “It has been an incredible season. We started last October in bringing the guys together, 48 players at that stage. We have gone through a process. I think it has been an incredible experience.
“Our coaching staff and our backroom staff is second to none. Mark [Sexton], Willie [Faloon] who is back at home, Andrew [Browne] and Aaron [Dundon] have done an incredible job with these guys but the backroom staff as well, from our medical team to our nutritionists, it’s been a huge team effort to get them [and keep them] on the pitch.
“I am extremely proud of what we have done. We have been beaten once in a proper competitive match all year so I think we can hold our heads up high in that regard.”
Ireland’s head coach said the plan was “to go multiphase with the ball on pitch for a long time. Unfortunately, we couldn’t sustain that for long enough. There are good moments in the game where Fintan [Gunne] sneaks over [for a try] and [the rugby] leading into John’s [Devine] try; happy with that.
“At 42 minutes they get a maul which their 12 joins in front of the ball and forces it over the line; that is a key moment in the game. The momentum just goes against you. We know that playing against France is difficult when they get their tails up.”
Gus McCarthy, sitting quietly alongside, summed up his feelings.
“It’s been an incredible season [even] if it didn’t finish the way that we wanted it to. At the start of the season if I thought I would captain a side to a Grand Slam and get to a World Cup final I wouldn’t believe you.
“Coming in, in October I may not have known some of the lads, but we have become brothers, it is such a tight squad now. We are just really disappointed with how it finished but we have to keep our heads held high, we fought and gave it our best. We didn’t perform how we wanted to on the day.
“I couldn’t have a better group of lads. We stuck together no matter what and we will stick together now.” Shakespeare’s words spring to mind. “But we in it shall be remembered; we few, we happy few, we band of brothers.”
