The Australians are no doubt still celebrating, while the other teams in the Rugby World Cup ask: "Where did it go wrong?"
Sponsors from the drinks industry are holding their own inquests into the successes and lessons of "the last great sporting event of the millennium".
The organisers of the World Cup have attracted justifiable stick in some areas. The International Rugby Board has accepted criticism regarding spreading the event thinly over five rugby nations, the high ticket prices and the scheduling of games in short bursts around weekends.
Other criticism has concerned the general lack of marketing, the lack of government backing and the ITV coverage. Sponsors, however, measure the success or failure by different criteria.
Guinness was one of eight official sponsors for the tournament, but the company was aiming from the outset to be the brand associated with the contest.
To this end it supplemented the £2million sponsorship fee with the £4million it paid to be ITV's broadcast sponsor and another £4million on marketing, part of a £16million global spend.
Steve Day, worldwide marketing development manager, said that having spent that sort of money, Guinness wasn't going to sit back and "hope" the tournament would be a success.
"We'd invested heavily in the tournament and we knew it was up to us to leverage benefit from that," he said.
The brand covered it from all angles — go to a ground on match-day and you couldn't miss the heavy branding, the wacky hats and the Guinness jazz bands.
Look at the telly and you caught the ads, pick up a paper and there were competitions, inflatable chairs, quirky news stories and pictures.
The proof of the pudding for Guinness was an estimated 15 per cent increase in sales for the duration of the tournament.
Other major sponsors are less happy, with BT hitting out at the organisation and marketing. Coca-Cola Schweppes also spent £2million, but this seemed a half-hearted commitment aimed mainly at keeping rivals Britvic away from the party.
Famous Grouse succeeded in positioning itself as the spirit brand most associated with rugby, but Highland Distillers must nevertheless be asking questions about the brand's sponsorship of the Scotland team given the problems attracting spectators to matches north of the border.
Among regional brewers, successes included Gale's GB —sales up nine per cent after regional TV advertising — and Charles Wells' Bombardier, "Rucking Good Bitter" as it was dubbed in print ads.
Carlsberg-Tetley achieved considerable success for Tetley's, even though it was not an official sponsor — the company's research showed 30 per cent of target drinkers named Tetley's as a brand associated with the Rugby World Cup, almost as high a figure as Guinness and ahead of all other brands.
"We are delighted," said marketing manager Darran Britton. "We had promotions in 4,000 pubs and there was a really good atmosphere for watching games."
Britton admitted, as did all sponsors, that the relatively poor showing by the home nations was disappointing, but pointed out that Tetley's has a long-term commitment to English rugby at all levels.
"The England team doing well would have been the icing on the cake," he said.
Fans of all the home nations will be hoping that their cakes will have more icing on them in future tournaments.