This one's a real heartbreaker

Ireland 17 France 20:There are defeats and there are defeats, but it's hard to think of one that ranks or rankles on this scale, however many years you go back.

Amid echoes of glorious failures from the amateur past, such as the defeat snatched from the jaws of victory in the World Cup quarter-final against Australia in 1991, Ireland saw France stealthily make off with a victory in the penultimate minute.

In truth, it couldn't be called a steal. Nor even could it be attributed to a bounce of the ball.

Even on Lionel Beauxis's 78th-minute restart, with France trailing 17-13, no less than competing for the ball, once Yannick Jauzion snaffled up the breaking ball they still had to manufacture the score.

With typical French daring, they did just that as few Test teams on the planet can.

Ireland will reproach themselves for their failure to close out the game and more. Handicapped in part by their own nerves or doubts, they showed les Bleus far too much respect in the opening exchanges and allowed the visitors to generally dictate their own tempo.

Nevertheless, relieved to be only 13-3 down at one point and 13-11 at the break, Ireland truly took the game to France thereafter.

Playing to their own tempo, mixing in quick taps and quicker lineouts, keeping the ball in the hand and alive, and hitting players in blue in the tackle or at ruck time much more aggressively, they began launching the outstanding David Wallace, Gordon D'Arcy and Denis Hickie.

Ireland played so much more of the second half on the front foot that they didn't concede one penalty.

The replacements made real impacts and there might even have been a case for making more of Andrew Trimble's ball-carrying, for that is what he brings to the party, by playing him in midfield and allowing Shane Horgan revert to the right wing, given his rustiness in the central role was obvious.

It was never less than grindingly hard work but with the team matching the crowd's own intensity, it seemed likely to be enough. Cue the heartbreaking finale.

In the first half, especially in a nervous, standoffish first quarter, it was Ireland who were playing like the bridesmaids and the French like the bride.

Even allowing for the absence of Brian O'Driscoll and Peter Stringer, for a team with pretensions to Slams or being World Cup contenders, on this day of all days, the lack of intensity in Ireland's play was surprising.

Ireland stood off their tackles and failed to reproduce, until the second half, the kind of physical aggression that became a striking feature of both their summer tour and their autumnal form.

By contrast, France quickly settled into their rhythm. Using quicker ball and with Pierre Mignoni's snappier, longer pass, David Skrela, Yannick Jauzion and David Marty applied plenty of width to use their pacy, potent outside backs.

Here, O'Driscoll's defensive organisational skills were missed, for Ireland defended too narrowly, France dropped their wingers back cleverly, and unless the Irish halves found touch with metres to spare the wingers or Clement Poitrenaud were more than willing to take quick throws to themselves or each other and counterattack swiftly.

Their more daring approach yielded handsome dividends, providing the impetus for Skrela to kick the second of two penalties - against Denis Leamy and Rory Best for not rolling away after the tackle - in the opening nine minutes.

Losing a scrum and a throw, Ireland were living off scraps, and Hickie's wraparound tackle to prevent Jauzion making the offload with two men on his outside may well have been a 10-point play, for it also enabled the outhalf to open Ireland's account.

Clerc, however, countered off another quick throw by Mignoni and was missed by Geordan Murphy. France went from touchline to touchline and back again, for Raphael Ibanez to beat Murphy on his inside shoulder.

It was no less than France deserved, Skrela making it 13-3.

At that juncture the portents looked ominous.

Ireland dug deep to work their way back into the game. Steve Walsh was wise to Serge Betsen pulling John Hayes back after the ball popped out of a French maul; Ireland going to the corner.

Though the lineout maul was held up just short, Dominici was blatantly offside after D'Arcy charged up the middle, and O'Gara made it 6-13.

Ireland's back play in the face of France's rush defence was crying out for reverse passes to targets inside.

Instead, O'Gara manufactured such a check on the French defence himself when feigning back inside, then outside Lionel Nallet and feeding Hickie.

He did well to offload to Horgan, who straightened and ran hard to pass out of the tackle for Wallace on the wing.

Though he had to turn into Poitrenaud's tackle, his soft hands enabled O'Gara to loop around and score a cracking try.

Even so, the sight of Skrela missing two kickable penalties either side of Murphy preventing a certain try by enveloping Jauzion to cut off an overlap merely compounded the general relief over a 13-11 interval deficit.

Ireland's second-half performance had to pick up and it did. Murphy was a tad unlucky when quick-wittedly picking Pieter de Villiers's pass off the ground after a knock-on by Pascal Pape, for what would have been an 80-metre intercept try, but Walsh, understandably it has to be said, had blown for the scrum.

Still, O'Gara edged Ireland in front for the first time after Harinordoquy came in from the side when the outhalf himself took the ball up.

The replacements made an impact, Neil Best introducing some fierce counter-rucking.

The game was now ebbing and flowing thrillingly.

Lionel Beauxis, France's nerveless 21-year-old outhalf, was introduced and hit the upright with a drop-goal attempt, but the Irish pack dug deeper again, finding the energy for a drive from one 10-metre line to the other off a Wallace take at the front for O'Gara to edge them four points in front.

There were only two minutes left, but when Jauzion picked up off the restart, France attacked out wide through Christophe Dominici.

From the recycle, there were enough men in green but they drifted too hard, Clerc straightened inside Hayes's shoulder and eluding the despairing dive of the covering Hickie to score.

There was barely 30 seconds left when O'Gara's restart drifted too near the 22 for Horgan and the chasers to reclaim.

Painstakingly, with horrible inevitability that the game was up, France mauled to the half-way line and Mignoni kicked the ball dead.

With that, Ireland's dream was dead too.

SCORING SEQUENCE:4 mins: Skrela pen 0-3; 9: Skrela pen 0-6; 12: O'Gara pen 3-6; 14: Ibanez try, Skrela con 3-13; 24: O'Gara pen 6-13; 32: O'Gara try 11-13 (half-time 11-13); 56: O'Gara pen 14-13; 78: O'Gara pen 17-13; 79: Clerc try, Beauxis con 17-20.

IRELAND:G Dempsey (Leinster); G Murphy (Leicester), G D'Arcy (Leinster), S Horgan (Leinster), D Hickie (Leinster); R O'Gara (Munster), I Boss (Ulster); M Horan (Munster), R Best (Ulster), J Hayes (Munster); D O'Callaghan (Munster), P O'Connell (Munster, capt); S Easterby (Llanelli), D Wallace (Munster), D Leamy (Munster). Replacements: J Flannery (Munster) for R Best, A Trimble (Ulster) for Murphy (both 61 mins), N Best (Ulster) for Easterby) (65 mins). Not used: S Best (Ulster), M O'Driscoll (Munster), E Reddan (Wasps), P Wallace (Ulster).

FRANCE:C Poitrenaud (Toulouse); V Clerc (Toulouse), D Marty (Perpignan), Y Jauzion (Toulouse), C Dominici (Stade Français); D Skrela (Stade Français), P Mignoni (Clermont Auvergne); S Marconnet (Stade Français), R Ibanez (Wasps), P de Villiers (Stade Français); L Nallet (Castres), P Pape (Castres); S Betsen (Biarritz), I Harinordoquy (Biarritz), S Chabal (Sale). Replacements: J Thion (Biarritz) for Pape (51 mins), J Bonnaire (Bourgoin) for Chabal (54 mins), L Beauxis (Stade Français) for Skrela (57 mins), O Milloud (Bourgoin) for de Villiers (60 mins), S Bruno (Sale) for Ibanez, C Heymans (Toulouse) for Poitrenaud (both 75 mins). Not used: D Yachvili (Biarritz).

Referee:Steve Walsh (New Zealand).

Pre-match :The President of Ireland Mary McAleese introduces herself to the French team. She'd no choice because they lined up, from left to right, with their replacements first all the way down to captain Raphael Ibanez, who stood next to the referee, Steve Walsh.

3 seconds :David Wallace becomes the first Irish player to catch a ball in a rugby match at Croke Park.

50 seconds :Imanol Harinordoquy wins the game's first lineout.

2 mins:Gordon Darcy slips (the GAA players will be saying I told you so) as David Marty breaks. Ireland concede a penalty, kicked by David Skrela. 0-3.

4 mins:Ireland lose first lineout as Harinordoquy gets there first.

5 mins :Ireland cough up possession from their first scrum when it rebounds from the secondrow to the French.

7 mins:Rory Best penalised at ruck. Skrela makes it 0-6 from the resultant penalty.

11 mins:Denis Hickie makes a good tackle on Yannick Jauzion and the French transgress. Ronan O'Gara kicks the 40-metre penalty. 3-6.

13 mins :A litany of missed tackles allow France to race into the Irish 22 where French captain Raphael Ibanez steps inside Geordan Murphy's tackle to score. Skrela converts. 3-13.

15 mins:Marcus Horan lets the props' union down by showing great agility to keep a ball from crossing the touchline.

21 mins:Serge Betsen penalised. Ireland kick to corner.

23 mins:Irish create overlap but O'Gara's pass to Murphy too high. Might have missed him out altogether. French offside and O'Gara posts the penalty. 6-13.

28 mins:O'Gara decides to kick (it's sliced) when he fields a loose French kick. There is plenty of support to counter-attack but it might have been an insight into the Irish mindset at the time.

31 mins:O'Gara, Denis Hickie, Shane Horgan and Wallace, all offer little cameos of excellence with the outhalf eventually rounding off the move with a try in the corner. He can not add the difficult conversion. 11-13.

33 mins:Denis Leamy tries to field the kick-off GAA style, but unfortunately knocks-on.

36 mins :Rory Best penalised at a ruck but Skrela misses from 22 metres.

38 mins :Murphy effects a great block on Yannick Jauzion's intended pass. It saves a certain French try.

40 mins:Isaac Boss penalised at a ruck but Skrela misses the resultant kick at goal.

Half-time:11-13 .

43 mins:Sebastien Chabal penalised for a high tackle on Horgan, an achivement in itself.

45 mins:Referee Steve Walsh outrages Irish supporters by calling back Murphy as he races for the French line having intercepted Pieter de Villiers pass. The Kiwi had already blown for a French knock-on.

47 mins:Gordon D'Arcy does what he does best and makes another slashing break.

52 mins:It's Hickie's turn to break the French defence but his pass to Murphy is not quite as memorable.

55 mins:O'Gara kicks penalty after Imanol Harinordoquy caught coming in from side in ruck. 14-13.

59 mins:Harinordoquy fumble is the third French error in as many minutes.

70 mins:Hickie and Andrew Trimble show their class and speed and Horan, for the second time on the day letting down the props' union, places a lovely little grubber kick through. Harinordoquy holds him back a little but there is no penalty. Think Simon Easterby last week and the word, karma.

72 mins:Irish wheel French scrum and get the put-in.

73 mins :Irish give away free kick on their put-in for delay.

76 mins :Ireland maul the ball 30 metres from Wallace lineout take. French collapse. O'Gara kicks penalty. 17-13.

78 mins:Clerc try. Jauzion grabs loose ball from kick-off. Two rucks and Vincent Clerc slaloms his way through Irish defence. Lionel Beauxis adds conversion. 20-17.

- Compiled by John O'Sullivan