Analysis: La Marseillaise, the French national anthem, is sung to lively music. It has a lot of verses and the tempo slows and quickens, writes Donal Spring.
It has a few lulls followed by explosions. It was perfect for the French team on Saturday. They were lively without losing control, had plenty of surprises in broken play and looked to have unlimited options. They relaxed a few times but exploded with devastating effect when required.
Ireland's Call, the anthem of the IRFU, is slow, repetitive and defiant: just as we were on Saturday. We did not have the speed to do any damage and never worried our opponents in this area. There was never the likelihood of a try from far out. We had very little variation and tended to rely on the same repertoire, principally the driven lineout.
We were defiant, however, and to the players' credit they never gave up right to the final whistle.
The aforementioned comparison is not in any way a criticism of the players; they all tried their hardest. There were a few poor options that one could question and a few basic errors but there are in every game, even with the best teams. Ireland missed very, very few tackles. The sad truth is that we were outclassed.
The French looked comfortable all day, even when we led 3-0 after 20 minutes and briefly rallied to 11-10 at the start of the second half with Anthony Foley's try.
Early on, by kicking into the corners, we managed to keep the game tight and limited the French options - had we continued doing so the score would have remained closer for longer.
Shane Horgan's attempt to run back a poor French kick instead of putting the ball into the right-hand corner marked the end of our control on the game.
We were playing catch-up after that. It is the sort of error a player out of position can make. Shane is a natural centre.
The good news, and there wasn't much, was the performance of Gordon D'Arcy in the centre. He was by far the most dangerous Irish player. If Brian O'Driscoll is available for the Welsh game, then the coach has a decision to make. He now has four centres to pick two from: O'Driscoll, Kevin Maggs, D'Arcy and Horgan. The latter will probably stay on the wing, so it's three for two places. We await the decision with interest. As life teaches us over and over, nobody is irreplaceable.
Donncha O'Callaghan and Frankie Sheahan will expect to start next Sunday and few would disagree with those choices.
New blood must be introduced into the back row, if not for the Welsh game then certainly with a view to the future. There are some good young players around in this area.
The real problem areas are in the front row and at the back. We must find a few prop forwards as we have only three genuine options at the moment, John Hayes, Reggie Corrigan and Marcus Horan, which is too small a pool, particularly with the increased number of matches and the frequency of injuries.
We must find a few wings and full backs. Apart from Gavin Duffy we seem very short of replacements. Although we have never been known as a nation for producing 100-metre sprinters we have nevertheless produced a fair share of good wingers. We need to find some quickly to broaden our options.
Girvan Dempsey had one of his better games on Saturday but the limitations remain. In the continuing absence of Geordan Murphy there is an opportunity to look at Gavin Duffy. That opportunity should be taken because otherwise he may never be tested at this level.
The Welsh game is beginning to assume the same importance to this Six Nations Championship that the Argentinian game did in the last World Cup. We need to get away from that syndrome and broaden our horizons. A win next week may be very significant in terms of our final position on the championship table but apart from that it won't change anything. A victory may in fact simply paper over the cracks.
There are huge problems in Irish rugby at the moment. We were fortunate when the game went professional that we had a provincial structure that allowed us to compete and we didn't have to go through the hell in which Wales and Scotland found themselves. They have suffered a lot of pain and embarrassment but appear, particularly in the case of Wales, to be taking major steps to improve their situation.
I think we are now heading into our difficult period and the problems facing Irish rugby are serious. The clubs are in chaos and have difficulty getting players. Youngsters seem to be giving up the game much earlier and there appears to be an unwillingness by former players to get involved on a voluntary basis.
We are, in my opinion, spending far too much of our limited resources on foreign coaches and players who are limiting the opportunities for our own to get experience. We should start now to plan for the future and not just for next week.