Few teams faced steeper odds against success than Ireland did last Sunday. After a humiliating defeat to Australia a week earlier, no one forecast victory against the New Zealand All Blacks. And the best that many had hoped for was a better and braver team performance to restore national honour against what is the greatest team in the world - perhaps of all time.

Ireland, it seemed, were gallant men on death row awaiting their All Black executioners. But clearly, the grim prospect of the gallows concentrated the mind of the Irish players. Certainly, it rallied the team’s fighting spirit, and encouraged them to defy the sporting odds in an heroic act of redemption on the pitch. That great team effort almost succeeded, and nearly caused one of the major upsets in rugby history.

Remarkably, the All Blacks snatched victory from the jaws of defeat in the final seconds of an epic encounter; one in which Ireland had held the lead throughout, dominating play for large periods of the game. So within a week, the worst of times for Irish rugby was transformed - at least for 79 minutes and 30 seconds last Sunday - into the best of times, to the great delight of Ireland supporters, eyewitnesses to what they had briefly hoped was sporting history. The dream was cruelly shattered when New Zealand - as is their style- found a way to win in the game’s final seconds. Ireland were denied the win that few dispute they deserved. Once again, the team was left to savour instead a moral victory.

This consolation prize was one Ireland - both players and coach - were unwilling to accept, refusing to be cast in the role of heroic failures. Indeed, their collective attitude to defeat marks a much more competitive spirit in Irish rugby, one in which mental toughness matters, and playing to win is all that matters. The national team, by its stellar performance last Sunday has set a new benchmark, a measure of what it can achieve, and one by which in future it will be judged.