It may have been agony for Wayne Pivac and his Wales team, and indeed Gregor Townsend's Scotland, but what a thrilling sequence of summer Tests we have just witnessed.
At the end of some rugby rip-roaring clashes, just where do the leading teams really rank as the countdown well and truly begins towards next year's World Cup? The official world rankings have been published, with Ireland climbing to the top spot to knock France into second and Wales occupying eighth position.
We assess the world rugby power rankings as players from the Six Nations sides return home for a well-deserved break, while the southern hemisphere big guns have the Rugby Championship kicking off early next month. This is the current state of play as we see it:
