'We owed ourselves a performance'

Ireland chose to look inward to rediscover their self-belief, and that commonality of purpose was at the core of Saturday's effort at the Stade de France.

The captain, Brian O'Driscoll, confirmed as much in the aftermath as he explained why the national side had produced a performance that may inspire people to look forward rather than dredge the immediate past.

"I have huge pride in the team and my team-mates. Many a weaker team would have lain down and taken a beating.

"As much as we were punished for some sloppy play, we played the vast majority of the rugby in the second half and really had a go at them.

"When you play 80 minutes of Test rugby you're usually spent and it's rare enough you want it to go on for another couple.

"We just felt - and we had said it all week after the Italian performance - that we weren't that far away from clicking. At times today I thought we really clicked, taking some great options. You'll look back and maybe question one or two decisions that can be the winning or losing of a match but they happen in a split second. The margins are tiny.

"We knew that spirit was there and that pride in the jersey was there. It's a big step in terms of us going forward and proving what we're really worth. We owed ourselves a performance and we owed our coach a performance.

"He stuck by us and we didn't deliver for him back in September, October, and it wasn't about trying anything for anyone else but ourselves. Your peers are the ones that you really care about. They are the ones that know how much effort you put in, the hard graft. That was the one thing that was spoken about this week and it was delivered in spades."

It was a view endorsed by the coach, who will draw heavily on Saturday in planning for the rest of the Six Nations campaign.

"At 26-6, particularly the last French try, weaker individuals would have walked away and assumed it was over. But they showed great guts and integrity . . . we kept believing and could have won the game.

"We came back, kept our composure as a team, and we deserved better at the end of the day. It told me there is integrity in this team, that they are all honest brokers who give 110 per cent in a green shirt."

France's head coach Marc Lièvremont was asked to explain why the home side almost lost a match that they had been winning with ease and in particular if his two frontrow replacements early in the second half helped the Irish revival.

"We dominated the scrum in the first half, but we didn't conserve our efforts well enough. Seeing us go backwards in the scrum did not give me much pleasure and I am unhappy they scored their penalty try. This highlights our shortcomings in this department.

"We are proud of the way our players performed, including the replacements. If anyone tells me that they did not contribute I wouldn't agree with them. We won but we suffered right until the last minute. We were punished for our mistakes and the same thing happened two years ago - France dominated at first and Ireland came back strong in the second half.

"The players will learn a lot from this but they showed a great will and desire."

As for Ireland's perennial nemesis Vincent Clerc, he was content that a brilliant personal occasion was not spoiled by an unlikely defeat: "It was a very special match because we had a very good first half but in the second half we were very afraid.

"We are a young team, so it's a problem for us to finish the game off, but we worked very hard for this win."

It'll be interesting to note who best absorbed the lessons from a topsy-turvy contest when the Six Nations resumes in a fortnight's time. Only then will the true lessons of Paris be fully apparent.