THERE was an insightful moment deep in the belly of the Stade de France about an hour or so after the game's end. Ireland's press conference was drawing to a close when the skipper, Brian O'Driscoll, was asked if he thought the best team had won. "That's a tough one," he said, playing for time. "I would say the more clinical team won."
It didn't precisely answer the question but it told the story of the game. Perhaps the narrative of the game was still flashing before O'Driscoll's inward eye: Ireland made 174 passes to France's 118, they made three times as many off-loads in the tackle as their opponents and they took the game to the French so often and so fiercely that the five top tacklers all wore blue jerseys.
But as O'Driscoll complimented the French for their clinical try-scoring, one sensed the depth of his anguish. This was a game Ireland let slip through their fingers. It is not often you outplay the French pack in Paris but Ireland did.
France, of course, did hold out and there are a couple of statistics that transcend all of the others; they made nine line breaks to Ireland's three and scored four tries to two. They achieved that because in their back three of Aurelien Rougerie, Vincent Clerc and Cedric Heymans, they had the best players on the pitch. Clerc scored three tries, Heymans got the fourth and they simply had too much pace for Ireland.
Thirteen days from now England travel to the Stade de France and there wasn't a lot in this French performance to frighten Brian Ashton's team. If Ireland could control the ball for such long periods of the match, surely the heavier and more physical English pack can do the same. France's new coach Marc Lievremont has picked a younger and quicker team but the pack is still some way short of what one expects from Les Bleus.
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But there has to be respect for what he has already accomplished. He took the job to the sound of dissenting voices. He was a journeyman back row forward, just about worth the 25 caps he won and after injury ended his career, he seemed to settle for a somewhat quiet rugby life. Coach to Biarritz's academy side, coach to France Under21s, coach to Dax and then, hey presto, French coach: he had risen without trace.
Undaunted, he has been doing things his way. He had come from nowhere and suddenly there was a fly-half and a flanker from Montpellier in the team, a new captain from Castres. He showed little loyalty to the team of the ex-coach Bernard Laporte and no loyalty for the conservative style of rugby that dogged the end of Laporte's reign.
No one foresaw the team he picked for his first game at Murrayfield and he again surprised everybody by making six changes from the team that beat Scotland 27-6. France produced an attacking performance that was breathtakingly efficient. They had to because this was Ireland's best performance for some time. What Ireland couldn't do was win their own lineout ball as France's more athletic forwards stole five Irish throws and each seemed important. A little sequence in the third minute foretold the way of the game. Ireland produced an early flurry of pressure, France were at sixes and sevens when Ronan O'Gara floated a high kick to the corner for left wing Rob Kearney. But before the wing could get there, Rougerie caught the ball and surged away on the open side. The audacity of a counter-attack beginning five yards from the French line was impressive.
It was a strange game because Ireland had so much possession and France seemed content to strike on the counter attack. For 60 minutes, it was the perfect strategy and after Clerc ran in his three first-half tries, the game seemed safe. They led 19-6 at the time and when Cedric Heymans got a fourth try 11 minutes into the second half that seemed to be that. Heymans' try encapsulated the difference between the teams. Scrum-half Jean-Baptiste Elissalde tried to kick down the right, the ball hit O'Driscoll and fell loose. Well, it didn't stay loose for long as Heymans swept it up and surged through from halfway to score. If only Ireland had had players with that pace.
In the end, one had to admire Ireland's doggedness and they got back into the game when Nigel Owens awarded a penalty try. Then David Wallace barged over for a second try and if O'Gara had made the conversion, the gap would have been reduced to six with almost 20 minutes still remaining. He missed and another fifteen minutes passed before he landed the penalty that took his team to within striking distance of the French.
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The game ended close to the French line with Ireland five points behind, desperately in search of a match-winning try. They worked a clever lineout move with Jamie Heaslip taking the ball at the back and flicking it to Eoin Reddan. For half a second, the line opened up before the scrum-half, then it closed as he threw a poor pass that went behind his support players. The chance and the match was lost.