Up there with the greatest days in Irish sport.
It would be stretching it more than a little to say that the Irish rugby team had lost their spark after the narrow defeat to Wales at the Millennium Stadium nine days ago.
This was a team, after all, that had won a record-equalling ten games on the trot before the Wales game and though Joe Schmidt’s men weren’t at their best, it took a mammoth defensive effort from the home side to claim a pretty big scalp.
It is fair to say, however, that Ireland’s methods in the Six Nations up to this weekend hadn’t exactly wowed the purists.
Joe Schmidt’s men were functional rather than flamboyant. They played conservative as opposed to cutting edge rugby.
Sure, they were rock solid in defence, but they weren’t pulling up any trees in attack, scoring a fairly meagre four tries in four games before the Scotland game on Saturday afternoon.
Then, in Murrayfield, everything changed.
Man of the match Sean O’Brien was back to himself against Scotland
Two days on, it’s still hard to make sense of everything that happened on probably the greatest day in the history of the Six Nations, but what we do know is that, spurred by the knowledge that points difference was going to be the deciding factor in the destination of the title, Wales, Ireland and England had to score heavily.
And boy did they score heavily.
Unlike England’s heroic efforts against France in Twickenham a little later on, however, there was nothing kamikaze about Ireland’s approach in Edinburgh.
Although they knew they had to win by 21 points, everything they did was cool and calculated, two words that sum up everything you need to know about Joe Schmidt’s reign as Ireland coach to date.
And, most importantly, Ireland were clinical when required.
Paul O’Connell sensibly allowed Jonathan Sexton to take three points when the opportunity presented itself early doors.
Then there was the type of pre-rehearsed lineout move that saw Devin Toner subtly hand the ball to Sean O’Brien before the Tullow Tank crashed over for the first of two tries on the day.
O’Brien went over again in the second half. Jared Payne rounded off an impressive campaign overall with his first try in an Ireland jersey. Luke Fitzgerald played as if was never away in the first place.
For ten minutes in the second half, Peter O’Mahony brought the level of intensity up to another level and claimed a Garryowen in a manner that will have impressed Rob Kearney himself.
Once again, Paul O’Connell was an inspirational presence in the Irish pack
Jamie Heaslip made the most important tackle of his career. And Paul O’Connell led his charges like only he can, scoring a try himself and inspiring greatness in those around him. We don’t want to even contemplate it right now, but he’ll leave a massive hole when he does hang up the boots.
In short, impressive though they had been before the weekend, what we saw in Murrayfield was the type of performance that we know Ireland can deliver when firing on all cylinders.
And if we see that type of display again at the Rugby World Cup in September and October, then who knows what might happen?
We can dare to dream, right?
In Schmidt we trust.
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