Ireland 15 France 12
The kicking of David Humphreys and a rock solid defence brought Ireland to within two matches of the grand slam after Eddie O'Sullivan's men ground out a tense three point victory over France this afternoon.
O'Sullivan won't welcome talk of the clean sweep, potentially Ireland's first since a solitary success in 1948, and will instead choose to focus on trip to Cardiff.
However, Irish fans travelling to the Millennium Stadium in a fortnight would surely concede to having one eye on the England's visit to Dublin at the end of the month
Humphreys marked his 50th appearance with four penalties after full-back Geordan Murphy had given the home side a flying start with a first-minute drop goal.
Ireland, who had wins against Scotland and Italy under their belts before today's triumph, now top the RBS Six Nations table with six points from three matches, ahead of England, who face Italy at Twickenham tomorrow and should maintain their unbeaten record.
Ireland had got off to a perfect with Murphy expertly slotting a 40-yard drop-goal between the posts barely 60 seconds into the match.
But the home side quickly found themselves on the back foot and they enjoyed a let-off when French hooker Raphael Ibanez dropped the ball within a yard of the Irish line.
An 11th minute penalty then allowed Humphreys to register his first points of the afternoon. Gelez cut the deficit back to three points four minute later but the French flyhalf was to fail with two other first half penalty attempts.
There was no such profligacy from Humphreys and two more penalties from the Ulster flyhalf, the second from the half-way line, stretched the Irish lead.
But it took some desperate defending in first half stoppage time to preserve the 12-3 advantage into the interval, a superb tackle by O'Driscoll and Murphy flooring French flanker Olivier Magne three yards out.
France picked up immediately where they had left off after the break and Gelez finally rediscovered his kicking touch with a straightforward penalty chance minutes after the restart.
Humphreys then made an uncharacteristic hash of an equally simple penalty before Gelez kicked his third to set the stage for a tense final half-hour in which both sides proved reluctant to take their chances.
Humphreys kicked another penalty to give Ireland some breathing pace but their respite was brief with Gelez cutting the deficit back to three points with six minutes left.
Humphreys saw his sixth penalty of the afternoon come back off the post in the final minute but ultimately that minor blot on his copybook did not matter and Ireland managed to hold on for a desperately hard-fought win.
Ireland skipper Brian O'Driscoll, who was closed down by the French defence for most of the match but put in one brilliant trysaving tackle late in the first-half, explained that the pressure had nearly got to the hosts.
"We started asking the referee 10 minutes before the end how much longer to go," he explained afterwards.
"We were hanging on by our fingernails but we put up a superb defensive performance against a rampaging French side," said the 23-year-old.
As for the possibility of the Grand Slam, O'Driscoll smiled ruefully.
"There could well be some chat in the dressing room about such a matter!"
Scorers
Ireland: Penalties: Humphreys (4), Drop goal: Murphy:
France: Penalties: Gelez (4)
Ireland: Geordan Murphy (Leicester/Eng); John Kelly (Munster), Brian O'Driscoll (Leinster capt.), Kevin Maggs (Bath/Eng), Denis Hickie (Leinster); David Humphreys (Ulster), Peter Stringer (Munster); Anthony Foley (Munster), Keith Gleeson (Leinster), Victor Costello (Leinster); Malcolm O'Kelly (Leinster), Gary Longwell (Ulster); John Hayes (Munster), Shane Byrne (Leinster), Marcus Horan (Munster)
Replacements used: Leo Cullen (Leinster), Alan Quinlan (Munster) Replacements not used: Frank Sheahan (Munster), Justin Fitzpatrick (Ulster), Guy Easterby (Llanelli/Wal), Ronan O'Gara (Munster), Rob Henderson (Munster) France: Clement Poitrenaud (Toulouse); Aurelien Rougerie (Montferrand), Xavier Garbajosa (Toulouse), Damien Traille (Pau), Vincent Clerc (Toulouse); Francois Gelez (Agen), Dimitri Yachvili (Biarritz); Imanol Harinordoquy (Pau), Olivier Magne (Montferrand), Serge Betsen (Biarritz); Olivier Brouzet (Montferrand), Fabien Pelous (Toulouse, capt); Sylvain Marconnet (Stade Francais), Raphael Ibanez (Castres), Jean-Jacques Crenca (Agen)
Replacements used: Christian Califano (Saracens/Eng), Sebastien Chabal (Bourgoin) Replacements not used: Jean-Baptiste Rue (Agen), David Auradou (Stade Francais), Matthieu Barrau (Agen), Gerald Merceron (Montferrand), Thomas Castaignede (Saracens/Eng)
Referee: Andre Watson (Rsa)
Attendance: 49,000