With England hammering away at France at the death of Saturday's Six Nations decider, needing one more score to pip Ireland to the championship, the peep of Nigel Owens' whistle made for the sweetest of sounds.
As people hugged and cheered and cried around the nation one Frenchman, substitute scrumhalf Rory Kockott, was also clearly elated and punched the air in glee, presumably because his side's 20-point defeat had stopped England getting their mitts on the trophy.
But elation quickly turned to bewilderment moments later when France skipper Thierry Dusautoir gave the nod for Yoann Huget to take a quick tap and thus began three of the most nerve wracking phases of play imaginable.
And so it was up to Agent Kockott to say enough is enough and dig the ball out from the base of the final ruck and hoof it onto the Twickenham roof, confirming Ireland as champions.
It doesn’t appear Kockott, who was born in East London South Africa, has any Irish lineage, but either way, I’m sure plenty would be willing to buy him a pint.
Kockott’s opposite number Conor Murray believes Ireland still have room to progress as a team following their historic back-to-back title wins, he said: “We are at a good level anyway, but I still think we can improve quite a lot.
“Every game through the Six Nations there have been things we have been frustrated with and we haven’t executed quite as well as we wanted to, but overall we are very satisfied with the way we have handled this championship.
“It’s exciting that we can improve and with a World Cup coming up it’s a great position to be in.”
Ireland will be gunning to top Pool D ahead of the likes of France in the World Cup, to tee up a likely quarter-final against Argentina.
The perils of finishing as runners-up in Pool D are stark - a potential last-eight showdown with New Zealand, the only major power Ireland are yet to beat in Test action.
“Right now we are going to relax and enjoy what we have done but when it comes to going back to camp and we gather again, we will be looking forward to a World Cup and that is really exciting for us,” said Murray.
“Constantly through the Six Nations we have performed well, we have played well but there have been a few areas where we know we can do better.
“That is quite exciting for us as a team with back-to-back championships now.”
