The mood was subdued yet sprinkled with smiles, reflecting the post-match mixed emotions. Relief, that what had been preached was finally put into practice; vindication for the management for what they are doing; yet abject disappointment that another famous win had eluded them.
Approaching the final quarter, as Warren Gatland said, "we had Australia on the ropes and the game was there for the taking."
Alas , one of Ireland's outstanding performances of the 90s and the best performance of the Gatland era didn't give this team the kind of lift that might see them really take off.
Ultimately, as Gatland acknowledged, the verdict came down to a couple of fateful moments - Malcolm O'Kelly's 57th minute knockon and Chris Latham's blatant forward pass in the build-up to the decisive 73rd minute score. Nevertheless, to get that close was `a result' of sorts.
And the pressure for a big display and improved result was on.
Whatever about Donal Lenihan's opening assertion that results were secondary to the squad's World Cup preparations, "having said that had we gone home having played badly then it certainly would have made things very difficult for us."
"It was a difficult week in some respects after the performance last Saturday, because we were very disappointed with the level of mistakes and the overall performance," continued Lenihan. "But it's great to see stuff you did on the training field come to fruition on the pitch and I think in an overall context, last January when we started out everyone spoke about our forward pack and had major question marks about our backs."
"I think we're going home having found two or three new players and with a philosophy - I mean when did you last see an Irish team move the ball from a scrum inside their own 22? We're thrilled now, that we stuck to our guns and we had the courage to keep playing the type of game that we're looking to play," added Lenihan.
"I think the players now have a greater understanding of when to move ball and a greater confidence to be able to do it. I think that alone, coming out of the tour, makes the four weeks worthwhile. But it's important now, because we have done good things before, that we don't let the improvements we've made this week disappear when we come together again in July." The manager neatly concluded the campaign by stating: "I think from the players' point of view, they've had a long season - they've been going since last July - so to finish stronger than Australia, not only at the end of the game but at the end of an 11-month season is something that we're quite pleased about."
Gatland couldn't resist noting that Ireland were the more adventurous side off set-piece ball especially, where the scrum and O'Cuinneagain's typically dynamic pick-up gave the space for Girvan Dempsey to be unleashed outside Brian O'Driscoll from inside the 22.
Describing the Wallabies as "pretty structured and patterned", he added that "from (Australian) set-piece in both Tests the ball never went outside 13. That's an area of the game we're trying to develop and we thought we created a lot of space and a lot of holes. We're pretty happy with the performance of our backs. We had a lot of room from set-piece that they didn't create against us. I think there were a lot of plusses for us from both Test matches."
Even though this may have been a timely "kick in the backside", and as Rod Macqueen maintained there's nothing quite like one, it will also have encouraged England in advance of next week's centenary test.
Many a cliche was shattered. Breaking the habits of previous tours and most Five Nations campaigns, Ireland saved their best until last, rather than getting it over with first. It gave the lie to the notion that tours to the southern hemisphere should be limited to one Test, and the glib assertion that the players aren't good enough. This was as much a technical thing as a mood thing.
Credit to the management and all of the squad for getting the mood right too. Returning from a Wednesday night out and singsong, Eric Elwood and Peter Clohessy had assumed the mantle of senior squad members on the team bus and had impassionately bemoaned the players not to let this tour slip away in standards like so many others had.
Clohessy graced the occasion with his third try for Ireland, and ironically the first came in the second Test in Australia five years ago when he blew through David Campese after a similar period of driving continuity from the tourists.
This time, he blew through Nathan Spooner and Daniel Herbert; a fitting way to mark a massive performance on the day he won his 30th cap to eclipse Gordon Wood as Limerick's most capped rugby player. That it came alongside Keith Wood, and in front of the travelling Young Munster supporters club, led by his father Noel and John Quigley, will have made it one of the most special days of his career.
Quite why the equally outstanding Wood himself was taken off remains a minor mystery. As with Paris last year, it's worth noting that Ireland were ahead (14-9) at the time and there was a yawning channel for Nathan Spooner to go through within two minutes. Would Woody have plugged it?
