Nobody lets their imagination run wild only to come up with five minutes at the fag end of a pasting.

That the Ulster scrum-half managed a try in that constrained space of time didn’t add up to much by way of consolation either. Not for him nor his team. A nice moment for his family, he said. Other than that? Well, it didn’t really matter. His words, not ours.

“(The Six Nations is) something we would have grown up watching. I was pretty emotional getting on the bus and going to the game. Come the end, I didn’t know if I was going to get on. It was nice to get those few minutes but there was no pressure on me. It’s easy to come on in those sort of games, it’s completely different coming on in a tight game or when you’re starting.

“There’s a hugely different mentality when you’re losing. It’s quite easy to look good at scrum-half when there’s nothing to play for. At the end we could’ve got a bonus point and I think the tempo was quite good but you’re just trying to fit into the team. I did okay in November, I’d have liked to do better, but hopefully, I can keep going from here.”

Next Saturday in Murrayfield would be a particularly good time, from Cooney’s perspective, to be afforded a broader tapestry on which to work.

His father is a Glasgow man and travels over with Cooney’s mother for the game. He has a grandfather and uncles still living in the city.

The question is whether Cooney should have been sprung sooner on Saturday. Or whether Kieran Marmion might have been released earlier from the purgatory of the stands, had he been fit.

Or whether any of that matters, given the straitjacket in which Ireland found themselves.

The same could be asked of Jonathan Sexton and Joey Carbery.

Sexton, like Murray, was uncharacteristically off-key on Saturday but, for all Joe Schmidt’s diligence in building depth around the squad since 2015, the fact remains that the first-choice half-backs are to be replaced only when injury dictates it.

You can see why.

Sexton, like Murray, isn’t just a world-class player. He is a barometer of Ireland’s health and a symbol of the side’s status. For some, the thought of voluntarily removing either from the XV would be akin to handing over the regimental colours mid-battle.

Not just a white flag but a red one with it.

But context is everything. This was Sexton’s first appearance since being injured against Munster five weeks earlier and Murray has struggled to find his usual groove, despite having returned from his longstanding neck issues in late November.

Isn’t this what squad depth should be for?

Murray and Sexton might well have offered up their most incomplete effort as a half-back pairing two days ago and, if Cooney was a raw alternative with just four caps to his name, then Carbery has been proving his chops for longer with Ireland and is now turning heads with Munster.

When Carbery finally appeared against England, it was as a full-back with Robbie Henshaw moving to centre to fill the void left by the departing Garry Ringrose after 73 minutes.

If Carbery doesn’t get the nod at 10 against England when a rusty Sexton struggles, what prospect does Japan hold for him this year?

There is no reason to believe that Sexton and Murray can’t resume normal service in Edinburgh in round two but it has to be a concern that Ireland are just over six months away from another World Cup and in a scenario where they are basically deemed irreplaceable as individuals.

And what next?

The worry is that this opening defeat backs Ireland and the coaching staff into a corner. That whatever plans there may have been to shuffle the deck for one or two of these Six Nations games — and give the likes of Carbery or a replacement scrum-half a longer run — will be shelved.

“It’s a big one now to go to Murrayfield,” said Cooney. “They’ll be on a high. They’ve two home games (starting off the tournament) so it’s important for them. It couldn’t be a bigger game for us. It’s a challenge but there’s no better place to go and get a win.”