Ireland flew all the way to Auckland to knock down the last house on their bucket list, and Eden Park did what Eden Park always does: it smiled, went 28-7 up by half-time, and posted the visitors home 40-21 with the one box on their glittering CV still stubbornly blank. Fifty-three Tests unbeaten at that ground now. Ireland brought the best available team and their Grand Slam scar tissue, and the fortress didn't even change the locks. And now the fixture list, cruel comedian that it is, has lined up the next appointment.
November's coming, and it's wearing green and gold
Because here's the schedule that should be keeping Andy Farrell awake: the Nations Championship signs off with a November swing through Argentina on the 6th, Fiji on the 14th, and then — the big one — the world-champion Springboks in Dublin on 21 November. Argentina to shake off the cobwebs, Fiji to test the nerves, and then the number-one side on the planet walking into the Aviva to see whether Ireland have fixed anything or just repainted it. It's a run that starts gently and ends with a full-scale Bok interrogation.
The "cosiness" question nobody enjoys
The Eden Park hiding did more than dent a record — it dragged the clock back to last November's frustrations and got people whispering the word no settled squad wants to hear: cosy. When the same trusted names keep getting the same trusted jerseys and the big away days keep ending the same way, "loyalty" and "stagnation" start to look suspiciously alike. Doris still leads a monstrous pack — Beirne, Furlong, McCarthy, Ryan, van der Flier — but a pack full of household names is exactly the group that gets asked the hardest questions when the scoreboard turns ugly.
So Ireland go home to lick the Eden Park wounds and stare at a calendar that saves the worst for last. Beat Argentina and Fiji and the mood steadies; run into the Boks in November under-cooked and the "cosiness" chatter becomes a roar. From where we're sitting at the bottom of Africa, we'll be there on 21 November with the popcorn and the green-and-gold, because the world champions touring Dublin to close out a long, strange year is the kind of banana skin that has "instant classic" written all over it. Mark it, lads. We already have.