It was destined to go to the end of the last game. There may be arguments about the schedule, which allows the games to unroll in a linear manner, rather than be played simultaneously, but it certainly provided drama to the very last play. It went to the last movement, the last scrum, and Ireland – a model of calm for most of the campaign – scrambled and flapped and flung themselves willy-nilly at everything that moved. Brilliant chaos.
They and England made this a memorable Six Nations, and it went the way of romance, with Brian O'Driscoll becoming a champion. Joe Schmidt persuaded him to carry on and he played a full part in a team that proved adaptable and constructive from the off. Jonny Sexton scored two tries when they really counted but missed a couple of kicks that almost counted for more.
If the last game was not the best of their five, it came with a demand on their reserves of strength against hugely muscled forwards. Ireland responded with an unquenchable spirit, a devotion to the cause and to each other. Raw forces, as opposed to the pure class that went with their encounter with England at Twickenham. It was the one they lost, the one that got away.
The grand slam slipped away from England at the end of their first game in Paris. By the end of the championship, they would be defending to the very last minute in determined mood, especially against Ireland and Wales – but in that opening encounter they allowed the completely batty French to string together their one and only meaningful passing movement, and work the teenage Gaël Fickou over for the winning try.
It was a lapse that continued to haunt Stuart Lancaster as his team grew stronger and stronger. To be ruing a missed grand slam is not the worst position for a coach and, in his review of the season – and as he looks forward to what could be a momentous 2015 for England – he will have many more memories to delight him than doubts to keep him awake at nights.
Mike Brown, with four tries in these five games – in stark contrast to his tryless first 21 Tests – has emerged as a world-class full-back. His one-man running has been sensational and the more he has become a marked man the more effortlessly he has escaped the clutches of the first tackler. He is starting to build an instinctive understanding with Jonny May and Jack Nowell. If there is a glitch in the back three it is that their collective try tally is one more than Brown's personal collection. That is, Brown has his four and Nowell has his first, in Rome.
It doesn't mean there is a lack of creativity in midfield. There is now a varied and sizeable threat in the shape of Billy Twelvetrees and Luther Burrell, with Manu Tuilagi back to push them. The reaction of Burrell to being replaced suggests he is not going to take being pushed without a bit of shoving back. A coach couldn't ask for more.
Danny Care has nailed down his right to wear the No9 shirt. It has been a rocky old path but it is often the way that a player who has danced with disgrace finally learns to treasure his moments. Care positively bounced his way through every game. All the barely concealed rage that used to make him so volatile has been transferred to Owen Farrell, who still plays as if he owes every member of the opposition a good hammering for slights against his person in times gone by.
Sexton, Chris Cusiter and Edoardo Gori all felt the feistiness of Farrell. It remains slightly unusual to have an fly-half as a semi-deranged vigilante, and no doubt Lancaster will have to give him the talk – the one about not wanting to dilute his passion, but please, Owen, not so many penalties, thank you. Again, there are worse pep talks to have to give.
Scotland looked like a team in need of a new coach. Fortunately, one is on his way. Vern Cotter cannot arrive too soon from Clermont Auvergne, to replace Scott Johnson, whose eccentricity in selection and strategy yielded a single win, in Italy. His team reserved their worst till last, and Stuart Hogg's red-card challenge on Dan Biggar summed up their campaign.
Italy won even less than Scotland but somehow they emerged with credit. They have a back three that can beat defenders and they have more than Sergio Parisse now. More of their players looked at ease with the rhythms of Test rugby.
Wales, the defending champions, relaxed at home in their last game against Scotland's 14. They looked confident with the ball in hand and full of invention and fitness. George North was back to his menacing best and Jamie Roberts looked subtle as well as thumping. Which raises the question why they went into their two big away games – at Twickenham and in Dublin – with a much less positive strategy.
True, Wales were rocked up front by the rampant Irish pack, which might have shredded any plan to be expansive, but they went into the England game with a notion, having analysed Ireland's approach against the same opponents, to kick. Rhys Priestland is not the best purveyor of an aerial game but the problem was more basic than that. Having gone into the Six Nations with a desire to play like champions, here were Wales opting for something more timid. England's task of undoing the damage of 2013 was made all the easier.
It was a good Six Nations, but not for the team that chose not to discover more about themselves. The voyages of discovery were made by Ireland and England.
