An emotional Johnny Sexton spoke of how grateful he is to have played for Ireland, after the captain's career came to a heartbreaking World Cup quarter-final end.

The 38-year-old played his final game of rugby on Saturday night, with Ireland falling to a devastating 28-24 defeat to New Zealand at the Stade de France.

Sexton, who won 117 caps for Ireland in his 14-year Test career was clearly emotional as he spoke to the media at the Stade de France, and says his fourth and final World Cup would be one he will cherish forever, even if it didn't have a better outcome.

"How can you be prouder to be Irish when you see what's happened over the last six weeks, really?," he said.

"The last couple of years have definitely been, in a green jersey anyway, the most enjoyable of my career. Definitely."

While Ireland never led in the game, they can look back at several moments in the 80 minutes where it was there for them to grasp it.

On 70 minutes they looked like they had New Zealand on the ropes. While they were still trailing 28-24, Ian Foster's side were down to 14 men due to Codie Taylor's yellow card, while Bundee Aki's breakdown work had seen them win a penalty in the New Zealand 22 to set up a lineout five metres from the line.

It looked like they were over for a try which would have sent them in front when they mauled their way forward, but Jordie Barrett's heroic effort held Rónan Kelleher up.

The Ireland captain also looked back with frustration on a missed penalty of his own on the hour mark. In the end, all those little moments added up.

"It's gutting that we couldn’t finish it off. Going back to that maul, when you’re over the line, it’s tough to take.

"Just a kick, if you’re chasing a penalty, it’s a lot easier at the end, but we left it all out there at least.

"I thought we had them a couple of times. Obviously to concede the turnover when we were so close to the line was gutting.

"They [New Zealand] scrambled incredibly hard for each other. There were probably a couple of overlaps that we didn't take full advantage of, but again, incredible to have the stakes so high and to go through that many phases just showed what this group is made of."

And while Sexton looked back with frustration on a missed opportunity for this side to go further than they ever have before, he expects New Zealand to back their performance up and reach the final.

"The All Blacks judge themselves on winning World Cups, don't they, so time will tell how good this team is. Obviously, moments of brilliance tonight won them the game and how dogged they were in defence, how good they were at the breakdown.

"Time will tell but they've got some outstanding players, they're well-coached, obviously improved a lot since Joe [Schmidt] and Jason Ryan have gone in.

"They're clearly on the up, they've Argentina in the semis and you're probably likely in the final and then anything can happen. So it will be gutting watching it but they're a good team."

Following on from the wins against South Africa and Scotland, there was an overwhelming majority of green in the near 80,000 at the Stade de France, and Sexton says their main regret is not being able to give that Irish support the win they wanted.

"We [the Irish] get behind the team like no other. It's incredible and it’s not wasted on us, and that’s why it is so hard to take really, that we didn’t give them another couple of weekends.

"But like Faz [Andy Farrell] said, it’s small margins and that’s sport. That’s life. It’s unfortunate but this group will bounce back.

"They are an incredible bunch led by the man beside me. It’s the best group I have ever been apart of. Bar none

"These guys will go on and achieve great things and I’ll be sitting in the stand having a pint like you lads."