Jubilant Richie Murphy's Ireland under-20 Grand Slam winners will have no World Cup to compete in this year, but the hope is there will be a summer tournament for the newly-crowned champions.
Ireland crowned a brilliant tournament by demolishing Scotland 59-5 at a packed Musgrave Park this evening, thus becoming the third under-20s team to win all five of their championship games after the 2007 and 2019 victors but the first to achieve the feat by beating England and France away from home.
The hosts were hot favourites going into the clash and had the bonus point wrapped up well before half-time and Ireland piled on the punishment before Fionn Gibbons burst through a couple of defenders to score his team's ninth try in the 78th minute.
"It's an amazing feeling, it's an amazing journey that these lads have been on for the last few months," said Murphy.
"We worked really hard to make sure we got off to a good start in the Six Nations and it's amazing how that has fed into this over the last five games.
"They're a very close-knit bunch and that really galvanised them, going to France and winning over there. They knew then what was ahead of them.
"Once we got together, our manager Tom (Kavanagh) had to come up with a couple of really good ideas, like putting pool tables and ping pong tables in.
"I was actually worried about some of the lads being fatigued from the ping pong rather than from the rugby! But they've really bonded well and there's been great craic in the team room, and they deserve a night like this."
Murphy will hope for more magical days ahead with this group, possibly in South Africa with the rest of the Six Nations and a number of other sides participating in a summer tournament.
"There's definitely no Rugby World Cup, we're hoping for some sort of competition," said Murphy.
"Yeah, we would have loved to have had a Rugby World Cup but it is what it is, we'll enjoy this and we'll look forward to the summer another day."
Ireland skipper Reuben Crothers added: "Honestly I couldn't be prouder of the boys.
"They put in some shift today and credit to the lads in the matchday 23, but it wasn't just them, we had a huge squad coming into the Six Nations and credit to the families, support staff and everyone who supported the boys tonight. It wouldn't have happened without them."
And the inspirational Ulster flanker said: "We just take every moment as it comes.
"We've always got that attitude of 'win the next moment, win the next moment' and that just keeps resetting every time to continually get better and improve every week, and the boys thrive off the atmosphere here."
