6 NATIONS: Whatever else, the class of 2004 will always have a Triple Crown. A dedicated, well-organised, well-backed group of Irish athletes studded with as rare a collection of jewels as Irish rugby has had in two decades, they deserved an overdue, if mythical, reward.

This being only Ireland's seventh Triple Crown, history has taught Irish rugby that after long barren periods, success such as this tends to come along in pairs (1894 and 1899; 1948 and 1949; 1982 and 1985), and the hope must be that this vintage crop can eclipse that two-crowns-a-decade haul in the first decade of the new millennium.

Why not? For the time being, Eddie O'Sullivan - true to his word in raising the bar - can bask in the glow of a little piece of history. The lap of honour to the sound of U2's Beautiful Day will no doubt be chided by some, but it seemed utterly justified at the time and O'Sullivan and Brian O'Driscoll were entitled to lead it. Only then were the crowd relaxed enough to vent their delight, and only then did we see the forest of green placards.

Up until the preceding half hour or so, the Lansdowne Road air had been heavy with expectation, which assuredly contributed to a less-than-foot-perfect opening 50 minutes. But if this team is to go on and challenge for more and bigger honours, then days such as this are a necessary part of the growing pains toward greatness. It will stand to them. Coping with expectancy and hype goes with the territory.

Nerves?

"Of course there was. We're only human," admitted O'Driscoll. "If we'd lost against England it would have been a bit of a nothing game.

"I'm sure Scotland would have been striving to avoid the wooden spoon and we might have been pushing for second place but there was an element of pressure, particularly with the huge amount of hype about the 1985 team. I thought we came through it extremely well."

The 25-year-old, 50-cap veteran can list many fine days in his career, Ireland's under-19 World Cup win in France five years ago among them, but rates this the best yet.

"I would probably say that was the greatest achievement, because it's so special not only playing for your country but managing to achieve something special as well. We're going to enjoy it now for the next couple of days anyway," he added with an impish smile.

If one other player typifies this squad's desire to leave an even more lasting imprint on the record books it was O'Driscoll's stand-in as captain for the opener in Paris, Paul O'Connell, and he struck what must have been one of the night's few sober notes.

While he saw it as a vindication of how good the team is, O'Connell added: "We've a long way to go. We need to start beating teams from the Southern Hemisphere now, we need to start beating France more often."

Mindful that this team has "let ourselves down" on big days in the past, such as last season's Grand Slam shoot-out with England and the World Cup quarter-final, O'Connell added: "People might be running away with themselves a bit because if you analyse it coldly enough, I think we've only really beaten England away at Twickenham. That's the only big one in there. While it was great to beat a resurgent Wales, we would expect to beat them on our form of the last few years, and we would expect to beat Scotland too, especially at home.

"People shouldn't get carried away but we're definitely going in the right direction."

With a real shot at cementing their place amongst the world's elite in South Africa in June, and with England and France due in Dublin next season, this team is entitled to be ambitious.

By the time the 2007 World Cup arrives, and that seems almost the chosen place for O'Driscoll to lead the charge, this squad will be largely still intact, in their prime and have a further truckload of caps under their belts.

But all these considerations and others were tempered by the news of John McCall's death, which cast a terrible pall over the Irish dressing-room and the day. David Humphreys and Simon Best were the first to hear the news, and they relayed it to Declan Kidney.

"I can't find the words," admitted Kidney. "When you get into coaching, particularly at under-age, you always have fears, even though you know it keeps kids off the streets. For something like this to happen is beyond belief."

As someone who has coached and taught at schools level extensively, Kidney would have a particular empathy with McCall's family and the Irish squad in South Africa.

"My heart and my thoughts would be with them now, trying to cope and to deal with everything there. They're in a situation where they are staying with a lot of other teams. We talk about the ups and downs of the game, and this really shows that that's all it is."

On a day that should have been about unbridled celebration, young McCall's passing seemed cruel beyond words.