The scoreline, if anything, doesn't convey the true picture of what unfolded at the Telstra Dome yesterday.

Ireland were well and truly beaten in virtually every facet of play and the game was long since up when a gutsy three-try salvo in the last half-hour averted what was shaping into another French flogging.

There were admirable exceptions to a strangely anti-climactic performance, not least Brian O'Driscoll, who tried every trick he knew in constantly probing for what few chinks there were in an excellent French defence and was rewarded with two smartly taken tries. Paul O'Connell put himself about too, if once overstepping the mark. Keith Gleeson worked damn hard but needed more go-forward ball to work off, and David Humphreys' introduction provided some real sparks, albeit when the game was effectively over. Shane Horgan was hungry for work and ran hard all day, and, of course, Keith Wood worked himself into the ground.

For the most part though, Ireland played like a side which had put all its eggs in the previous two baskets, and when they went back to the larder found they couldn't rustle up an omelette. Perhaps they were right, for the feeling that Ireland's best chance of breaking new ground and reaching the semi-finals had slipped away the previous weekend was reinforced virtually from the kick-off.

France have set their targets a good deal higher and probably have more reason to do so. Having come through an easier pool and targeted this game from a fortnight ago merely as a stepping stone to actually winning the big prize, Les Bleus looked altogether fresher.

Ireland couldn't get a foothold anywhere. The French scrum put Ireland's first two put-ins under severe pressure, the outstanding Fabien Galthie pressurising Victor Costello behind the gain line and forcing Simon Easterby to concede a penalty for coming in from the side.

Ireland's own lineout again held up well but they couldn't make any impression on the Raphael Ibanez throw. With Imanol Harinordoquy at the tail, Olivier Magne moving up and down the line, and Jerome Thion and Fabien Pelous also to hit, the well-organised French had too much movement and too many options. This was light years from the Australian lineout.

And that was just an example of what they were about. This was a team which knew exactly what it was doing at all times.

With Fabien Galthie and Frederic Michalak pulling the strings, you probably had to be in the ground to appreciate the perfect alignment and depth with which the French backs and their marauding back-rowers came onto the ball. You wouldn't see better choreography in a stage musical.

From the first two balls Ronan O'Gara received the speed with which the French pushed up was eye-catching, and unlike anything Ireland had faced thus far.

They also tackled waist- or chest-high and hard, as once more, against the big boys, Ireland were often bossed across the collision line. Ireland's defence was comparatively standoffish, and France had far more space to operate in.

Ireland needed a good start, and the last thing they wanted was to go 7-0 down inside three minutes when France gently flexed their pecs for the first time. It happened with unnerving ease as well.

A standard ploy, it saw the French go right to left from a lineout while leaving Harinordoquy and Magne back on the right-hand side of the pitch, and from the recycle Michalak kicked crossfield.

Remarkably, no Irish forward was kept back - all of them had drifted across to the initial point of attack. There had been an argument for moving Shane Horgan across to the left wing to match the physique and height of Aurelien Rougerie, as John Kelly would be targeted for some aerial bombardment, but as it happened he had been dragged across-field by Rougerie as well, so he wasn't there either.Girvan Dempsey was outnumbered three to one by Harinordoquy, Tony Marsh and Magne, as the Irish full back struggled to get across to the flight of the ball and perhaps couldn't see the blue cavalry coming his way.

Harinordoquy beat Dempsey to the high bounce and tapped it down, Marsh gathered and though the ever-game Peter Stringer was across to tackle him, he offloaded for Magne to score with ease and with Harinordoquy for company.

It made you wonder about the pre-match video analysis and defensive planning, and to be honest, things looked ominous from that moment on. Ireland just weren't at the pitch of the game, and had to live off scraps. A couple of solid scrums and touch-finds by O'Gara were about the height of things in the opening quarter, but otherwise the kicking just invited French counterattacks.

With Michalak landing nine from nine, the score hit 27 by the break. Magne latched onto a pass from O'Gara which eluded O'Connell as Ireland bunched in midfield, and Magne pounced for Serge Betsen to put Christophe Dominici away from halfway. "That was like a stake through the heart for the boys," admitted O'Sullivan afterwards.

By now Allez Les Bleus had long since drowned out The Fields Of Athenry.

Galthie sniped, took O'Connell's tackle and offloaded for Harinordoquy to score stealthily off Jean-Jacques Crenca's pass. There was no let-up after the break either, Michalak dancing through initially, France keeping their patience and width for Rougerie to pick up Magne's flick and send Crenca over the line.

Cue Humphreys and some brave catch-up. From an O'Connell take and Wood's skip pass on the run, Kevin Maggs arrowed inside onto Humphreys' short pass just after France reshuffled their midfield, veering back outside Rougerie for a fine try.

With Ibanez rightly binned, Ireland called a scrum and with Magne taken off Humphreys executed a deft little grubber for O'Driscoll to snaffle a tricky touchdown with his left hand. After a fifth Michalak penalty O'Driscoll took Guy Easterby's pass to step inside one tackle and swivel out of another two for another adroitly taken try.

Acute embarrassment had been averted.

SCORING SEQUENCE: 3 minutes: Magne try, Michalak con 7-0; 21: Michalak pen 10-0; 29: Dominici try, Michalak con 17-0; 33: Harinordoquy try, Michalak con 24-0; 39: Michalak pen 27-0. Half-time: 27-0. 42: Michalak pen 30-0; 47: Crenca try, Michalak con 37-0; 52: Maggs try, Humphreys con 37-7; 60: Michalak pen 40-7; 65: O'Driscoll try, Humphreys con 40-14; 72: Michalak pen 43-14; 80: O'Driscoll try, Humphreys con 43-21.

FRANCE: N Brusque (Biarritz); A Rougerie (Montferrand), T Marsh (Montferrand), Y Jauzion (Stade Toulousain), C Dominici (Stade Francais); F Michalak (Toulouse), F Galthie (Stade Francais, capt); J-J Crenca (Agen), R Ibanez (Saracens), S Marconnet (Stade Francais), F Pelous (Stade Toulousain), J Thion (Biarritz), S Betsen (Biarritz), I Harinordoquy (Pau), O Magne (Montferrand). Replacements: B Liebenberg (Stade Francais) for Jauzion (52 mins), Y Bru (Stade Toulousain) for Magne (64-73 mins) and for Ibanez (74 mins), O Brouzet (Montferrand) for Thion (66 mins), O Milloud (Bourgoin) for Crenca (70 mins), P Tabacco (Stade Francais) for Harinordoquy (75 mins), P Elhorga (Agen) for Rougerie (78 mins). Sin-binned: Ibanez (65-75 mins).

IRELAND: G Dempsey (Leinster/Terenure Coll); S Horgan (Leinster/Lansdowne), B O'Driscoll (Leinster/Blackrock Coll), K Maggs (Bath), J Kelly (Munster/Cork Constitution); R O'Gara (Munster/Cork Constitution), P Stringer (Munster/Shannon); R Corrigan (Leinster/Greystones), K Wood (Munster/Garryowen), J Hayes (Munster/Shannon), M O'Kelly (Leinster/St Mary's Coll), P O'Connell (Munster/Young Munster), S Easterby (Llanelli), V Costello (Leinster/St Mary's Coll), K Gleeson (Leinster/St Mary's Coll). Replacements: D Humphreys (Ulster/Dungannon) for O'Gara (49 mins), M Horan (Munster/Shannon) for Corrigan (52 mins), E Miller (Leinster/Terenure Coll) for Costello (65 mins), G Easterby (Rotherham) for Stringer (72 mins).

Referee: J Kaplan (South Africa).