Better late than utter humiliation

Six Nations/ France 43 Ireland 31: Another moral victory? Sorry, not having that. The suspicion lurked before the game that this might be an eminently beatable French team and an eminently winnable game for Ireland. That feeling had, if anything, hardened by the end.

Whether the result of their mental state, the replacements or a lack of youth and stamina, France's pressure game, notably in scrums and defence, eased off considerably. It helped that by the time Ireland started to make some real inroads, they were doing so off much quicker ruck ball and/or a flurry of tapped penalties.

Ireland played all the rugby? Well, until they fell 40 points behind, they played a fair amount of headless, kamikaze rugby.

Tactically, you wondered what this Irish performance was about. Clearly they wanted to play a fairly wide game to move the old French pack around, but they drew no lines in the sand as France generally bossed the collisions.

It seemed extraordinary that, twice having opted for quick taps inside the French 22 rather than go for the close-range lineout, Ireland waited until the 37th minute to employ the maul - driving the French back almost 25 metres - and that, given Malcolm O'Kelly seemed capable of making real inroads into the French lineout, Ireland did not then kick to the corner until the ensuing play.

And not one up-and-under to test little Christophe Dominici in a relatively unfamiliar fullback role? Instead they repeatedly set themselves up as targets for fired-up big hitters with their lateral alignment and continually forced passes - a sign, perhaps, of a team lacking confidence?

Ireland's basic skills also cracked a little under pressure - the most obvious manifestation the two tries conceded off Ronan O'Gara's boot, the first to David Marty's chargedown, the second when Marty gathered O'Gara's attempted grubber.

The first was the product of France's fringe defence, ensuring no go-forward ball from the Irish pack, and also the result of Ireland lying far too flat.

Furthermore, one can hardly recall a half of rugby in which Brian O'Driscoll, Gordon D'Arcy and Geordan Murphy all forced the pass to such a degree they missed intended targets and instead found the touchline, never mind Murphy coughing up the fourth try with an overambitious pass infield.

France were really up for it at the start, Fabien Pelous thumping Olivier Milloud on the chest after the completion of La Marseillaise, and Milloud duly shoved John Hayes in and up toward the Parisian sky at the first scrum.

They flew up in defence, and put in huge hits all across the pitch. But they were helped no end by so many Irish ball receivers taking slow ball flat.

The second try could also in part be attributed to bad luck in that Denis Leamy and Murphy collided, but we'd have hailed Ireland's quick thinking and execution had they scored it.

To Ireland's credit, some remedial work had been done in response to the Italian game. The restarts, at last making use of Shane Horgan, were more proactive and might have yielded a try by D'Arcy to stem the flood of French points in the opening half-hour but for a marginal knock-on call by Rob Dickson (how does he get to run the line in a Six Nations game?).

Their own more aggressive, blitz defence generally prevented France making inroads off their few bits of attacking setpiece ball or building up through the phases. The exception being the third-minute, opening try, not so much a system failure as the product of two defensive slip-ups and French brilliance.

Would that try have been scored had Girvan Dempsey been at full-back and Murphy on the wing, or had Denis Hickie been on the wing? Probably not.

As for the theory that one side played all the rugby, again, if Ireland had executed that try we'd have been lauding it, and rightly so.

Having seen two of his kicks cough up 14 points, O'Gara pulled his game together after an injection of confidence from his 59th-minute try. Amazingly that would be the first of a four-try, 28-point salvo in an astonishing 16-minute period.

During that spell and virtually up to the full-time whistle, the Irish forwards helped ensure a steady supply of quick, quality ruck ball, helped by Peter Stringer's speed to the breakdown and in clearing the ball away.

Outside O'Gara, the Irish backs simply cut the French defence to shreds, especially through the footwork, ability to stand up the tackler, acceleration and eye for a gap of the midfield pair.

It wasn't just those two, mind. Suddenly, where it had been a hot potato, now everybody wanted the ball. David Wallace and Horgan, who had been running hard even when the going had been tough, really started to motor, and you couldn't but admire the sheer heart and willingness of Leamy to take the game to France, even if he still doesn't quite look a natural Test number eight.

The French defence slackened off and, with such pace on the ball, had more holes than a sieve.

Having already lost the influential Raphael Ibanez, Bernard Laporte withdrew the other two forwards he had recalled after the defeat in Murrayfield, Olivier Magne and Milloud, and with them went much of France's forward punch. And, betraying even more cockiness, he withdrew Jean-Baptiste Elissalde prematurely, the Toulouse scrumhalf having produced the pass of the day to put Cedric Heymans over for the fifth try after Aurelien Rougerie had run through O'Gara.

The withdrawal of his fellow Toulouse halfback also seemed to upset Frederic Michalak's rhythm, though it was now that the latter's and France's lack of a kicking game came home to roost.

D'Arcy's was a classic centre's try, fit to garnish this venue; Donncha O'Callaghan, who added some grunt to the forward play, scored off another Stringer quick tap, and the pick of the four was the support line Andrew Trimble took when set up by a fired-up O'Driscoll, by now running on empty but still better than anyone on the pitch.

There might have been more. It shouldn't have been too little, but alas it was too late.

Brilliant to watch, it restored some pride in the green for team and 7,000 supporters alike. If it injects some confidence for the Welsh game, all the better.

Yet, oh what might have been.

SCORING SEQUENCE: 3 mins: Rougerie try 5-0; 7: Magne try, Elissalde con 12-0; 17: Marty try, Elissalde con 19-0; 29: O'Gara pen 19-3; 31: Elissalde pen 22-3; 36: Heymans try, Elissalde con 29-3 (half-time 29-3); 45: Heymans try, Elissalde con 36-3; 48: Marty try, Elissalde con 43-3; 59: O'Gara try and con 43-10; 63: D'Arcy try, O'Gara con 43-17; 70: O'Callaghan try, O'Gara con 43-24; 74: Trimble try, O'Gara con 43-31.

FRANCE: C Dominici (Stade Français); A Rougerie (Clermont Auvergne), F Fritz (Stade Toulousain), D Marty (Perpignan), C Heymans (Stade Toulousain); F Michalak (Stade Toulousain), J-B Elissalde (Stade Toulousain); O Milloud (Bourgoin), R Ibanez (Wasps), P de Villiers (Stade Français); F Pelous (Stade Toulousain, capt), J Thion (Biarritz Olympique); Y Nyanga (Stade Toulousain), O Magne (London Irish), J Bonnaire (Bourgoin). Replacements: R Martin (Stade Français) for Magne (38-40 mins and 58 mins), S Bruno (Sale) for Ibanez (47 mins), S Marconnet (Stade Français) for Milloud, D Yachvili (Biarritz Olympique) for Elissalde (both 58 mins), B Boyet (Bourgoin) for Michalak (72 mins), L Nallet (Castres Olympique) for Nyanga (75 mins), Magne for Martin (78 mins). Not used: Ludovic Valbon (Brive).

IRELAND: G Murphy (Leicester); S Horgan (Leinster), B O'Driscoll (Leinster, capt), G D'Arcy (Leinster), T Bowe (Ulster); R O'Gara (Munster), P Stringer (Munster); M Horan (Munster), J Flannery (Munster), J Hayes (Munster); M O'Kelly (Leinster), P O'Connell (Munster); S Easterby (Llanelli), D Wallace (Munster), D Leamy (Munster). Replacements: S Best (Ulster) for Corrigan, D O'Callaghan (Munster) for O'Kelly (both 51 mins), A Trimble (Ulster) for Bowe (64 mins), E Reddan (Wasps) for O'Driscoll (83 mins).

Referee: Paul Honiss (New Zealand).