The killer moment came not on the pitch where Ireland were out-thought, outgunned and outclassed, it came in the hush that followed a French win every bit as handsome as the one they claimed in Dublin a year ago.<\/p>\n
Andy Farrell, Ireland\u2019s shellshocked head coach, had just vacated the interview booth, leaving behind soundbites the like of which he rarely drops in a public place.<\/p>\n
Ireland are vulnerable<\/p>\n
Pitch side stood Brian O\u2019Driscoll, if not Ireland\u2019s<\/a> greatest ever player certainly a strong contender for the title.<\/p>\n O\u2019Driscoll was asked by ITV anchor Jill Douglas what he thought of Farrell\u2019s scathing verdict that Ireland \u201clacked intent\u201d and \u201creacting when it\u2019s a little bit too late isn\u2019t the way we want to do things\u201d.<\/p>\n O\u2019Driscoll, zipped up in a dark puffer jacket against the Parisian chill, took a deep breath.\u201cWhat concerns me,\u201d he said, \u201cis that now there is a vulnerability to this team.<\/p>\n \u201cOther sides will be looking at us and think, \u2018Do you know what, this is nothing like the Irish team that was at the World Cup in Paris two years ago. This is a team very much in transition and there are scalps to be had.<\/p>\n \u201cItaly will come to town next week and there will be other sides as well that will go, \u2018Do you know what, we can actually beat this Irish team\u2019, where I don\u2019t know if that has truly been realistic in some cases in previous years.\u201d<\/p>\n A year after conceding 34 unanswered points to France<\/a> at the Aviva, Ireland shipped 29 without reply and, with almost an hour on the clock, had still to get off the mark.<\/p>\n For the first time since Twickenham in 2020 they failed to trouble the scorers before half-time and by the time the masterful Louis Bielle-Biarrey bagged his second France had a bonus point and were over the hill and far away.<\/p>\n In the first Thursday match in tournament<\/a> history this was a horror show for the men in green, who would have fallen behind to France\u2019s first attack inside two minutes had Charles Ollivon not knocked on with the line at his mercy.<\/p>\n France v Ireland: Five takeaways as \u2018marked contrast\u2019 between the 10s sees \u2018slow as dial-up\u2019 Sam Prendergast have Test he\u2019ll \u2018want to forget\u2019<\/a><\/p>\n Luckless<\/p>\n They did trail soon after, to Bielle-Biarrey\u2019s first, and conceded a second on 22 minutes to the magician Matthieu Jalibert. When Ollivon righted his earlier wrong and made it three shortly past the half hour, it was hard to think of a single thing Ireland had done right.<\/p>\n \u201cYou make your own luck in this game,\u201d said Farrell. \u201cWithout the ball, I thought we lost that [intensity] battle in the first half. The things like the high ball and winning the scraps on the floor, running through tackles or missing tackles \u2013 that\u2019s the main part of our game.<\/p>\n \u201cWe certainly came off second best in that regard in the first half. Our response was gallant, but that\u2019s not what we want to be, we don\u2019t want to be a responding team. We needed to show it from the get-go.\u201d<\/p>\n In the space of two games Ireland\u2019s aura has evaporated. This time 12 months ago they were reigning Six Nations champions and ranked number two in the world.<\/p>\n They are a shell of that team: scrummaged into oblivion by South Africa on the final weekend of autumn, ripped apart by France on the opening evening of spring. They are lacking both in punch and pace.<\/p>\n To make things worse they knew exactly what was coming their way because Shaun Edwards all but drew them a diagram on the pitch beforehand, announcing they had two objectives for the evening: \u201cambition and excitement\u201d.<\/p>\n How the champions met both of those, playing with the emotion Mako Vunipola had warned they would bring to this fixture when speaking to Planet Rugby earlier in the week.<\/p>\n The England and Lions great, who plies his trade in France with Vannes, had seen the reaction of the country to fellow prop Uini Atonio\u2019s heart attack and immediate enforced retirement and warned the national team would step it up a level.<\/p>\n France player ratings v Ireland: \u2018Magic\u2019 Louis Bielle-Biarrey \u2018playing a different game\u2019 but bench nearly squander \u2018unloseable position\u2019<\/a><\/p>\n England could feast<\/p>\n Add into the mix this was Antoine Dupont\u2019s first Six Nations start since rupturing his ACL against Ireland, last time the sides met in circumstances the French were none too happy about, and it was not hard to foresee the passion play which unfolded.<\/p>\n \u201cWe were pretty passive defensively, 19 missed tackles and a number of soak tackles as well that allowed them to flourish with their keeping the ball alive, attacking game,\u201d Ireland captain Caelin Doris conceded.<\/p>\n \u201cThat first 30 minutes we couldn\u2019t find our feet, we allowed them to get phases and score. It was the collisions that let us down.<\/p>\n \u201cIf you want to win a championship you need strong defence and we didn\u2019t have that today. We have a lot of lessons to learn. We\u2019re going to have to do a lot better at home next week.\u201d<\/p>\n It is very early in the tournament to anoint any nation as champions-in-waiting. France certainly have match winners to fit the bill: Jalibert and Dupont at halfback, Nicolas Depoortere in midfield, Bielle-Biarrey out wide, Thomas Ramos at the back and the hugely impressive Mickael Guillard up front.<\/p>\n Yet woeful as Ireland were, they still drew the second half and had Ronan Kelleher not had a try chalked off for a knock-on, the visitors would have scored three in 14 minutes and put the fear of god into a home side which had knocked off early.<\/p>\n