South Africa 24-25 Ireland: ‘Ireland close one chapter and open another’

These two games against the back-to-back world champions always felt like one last push from the same group that took Ireland to a 2023 Grand Slam and the number one ranking in the world this time last year.

With a sure-to-be eagerly anticipated autumn meeting with the All Blacks in Dublin as their next fixture, and England emerging as a sizeable threat to their recent Six Nations supremacy, Farrell is not about to start experimenting for experimentation’s sake.

But it will be fascinating to see if the baton of Ireland’s spiritual leader is permanently passed from O’Mahony to Doris for November, while Ciaran Frawley has clearly staked a claim to push Jack Crowley for the number 10 jersey, even if it is one he rarely wears for his province Leinster.

Uncapped players like Sam Prendergast, Cormac Izuchukwu and Nathan Doak, who travelled to South Africa without seeing the pitch, will look to kick on too, even if it could be next summer before they see significant time in green.

Exact fixtures are still being finalised but the side will be heading for Georgia and Romania next July, matches that would lend themselves to a deepening of the talent pool akin to when Japan and USA came to Dublin in 2021.

Farrell himself will be otherwise engaged by then, of course, as he leads the Lions in Australia with his assistant Simon Easterby expected to take temporary charge.

Change is coming for Ireland next season. After ending their longest campaign on such a high in Durban, they look ready to embrace it.