Revolution or evolution? Farrell won't rip up script for 2024 Six Nations

Ireland have just over three long months to stew.

Their 2024 Six Nations campaign, which Ireland start as defending Grand Slam champions, kicks off in 105 days. One hundred and five long days.

At least they don't have to return to the scene of the crime with Stade de France off limits in preparation for the Olympic Games.

The only crime, by the way, is that most of the Irish players who lost the quarter-final to New Zealand didn’t reach their own high standards.

Instead the championship will kick off in Marseille’s Velodrome under the Friday night lights on 2 February.

At that point we’ll be nine rounds deep into the BKT United Rugby Championship and the round of 16 knockout pairings for the Investec Champions Cup will be known.

That’s a lot of bridges to cross.

When the final whistle blew in Paris on Saturday night it signalled the end of an era.

It had long been known that Johnny Sexton, aged 38, would call time on his professional career when Ireland’s tournament ended. (That said, he never looked in better shape than he did over the course of the pool stages. It had been four years since he put together a run of five international starts in such a concentrated time-frame. However, a U-turn, and a chance to right a few wrongs with Leinster appears very unlikely.)

Keith Earls announced his retirement from rugby yesterday, the 36-year-old wing won 101 caps since making his debut in 2008.

Flanker Peter O'Mahony, 34, suggested that he will take time to consider his future, another centurion who has given so much for the cause.

Munster team-mate Conor Murray has been an incredible servant over his 108-cap career and is the same age as O’Mahony. Cian Healy, who missed the trip with a calf injury, is 36 years old; Dave Kilcoyne turns