Rugby – Six Nations Reaction:Gordon D'Arcy admits Ireland face a week of soul-searching after being issued with a brutal reality check in yesterday's 33-10 rout by France. The champions saw their Grand Slam defence crumble during a depressingly familiar afternoon in Paris that exposed the gulf in class between the title rivals.
France were outstanding as they reduced Ireland, previously unbeaten in 12 matches spanning 15 months, to playing second fiddle and were unable to respond to the French onslaught.
While the odds have now shortened on the pre-championship favourites completing the Grand Slam themselves, Ireland must reflect on yet another painful visit to the French capital.
The inquest will begin in earnest tomorrow but with fixtures against England, Wales and Scotland to come, D'Arcy refuses to concede the title.
"A reality check, a kick in the ass - you can put 100 different names on that result," he said.
"We got right a lot of things that we did wrong against Italy last weekend, but were slack in other areas.
"We know what we have to do now and next week will be a fairly honest week, to say the least. We've got to roll with the punches.
"But the great thing about sport is that next week is a clean slate, so as long as you're selected you get the chance to make up for it.
"The championship is still open. All we can do now is try and win our remaining games while hoping somebody nicks one against France.
"Then if we win it, we win it. If we don't then we'll have gone out on a high."
France's ability to self-destruct ensures Ireland are justified in refusing to throw in the towel but after two years of being hamstrung by coach Marc Lievremont's revolving door selection policy, Les Bleus finally appear to mean business.
They bossed the try-count 3-1 with William Servat, Yannick Jauzion and Clement Poitrenaud crossing and had galloped 17-3 ahead by half-time, establishing the type of lead that underpinned their victories in 2006 and 2008.
This time, however, there was no swashbuckling if futile comeback from a side that had lost its swagger despite their confidence of improving the nation's appalling record of a solitary win in Paris since 1972.
A 15-point haul from scrumhalf Morgan Parra, who accused Ireland of being perennial cheats amid a dismissive pre-match assessment of his opponents, only rubbed salt into the wound.
Fired up despite the biting sub-zero temperature, Ireland threatened the whitewash twice in an encouraging opening quarter with the impressive D'Arcy denied a try only by a cruel bounce of the ball.
But their efforts were marred by the sin-binning of Cian Healy for holding back Parra and France scored 10 points in his absence, while Jerry Flannery was lucky to stay on the pitch after his outrageous lunge on winger Alexis Palisson, who then limped off with a dead leg.
David Wallace finished a beautifully-executed move in the 65th minute but in the end Ireland were thrashed out of sight - and D'Arcy leaves no doubt where the blame lies.
"Look at France's body language body during that first 20 minutes," said the Leinster and Lions centre.
"We were all upright and they had their hands on their knees, but we just didn't capitalise and then the error rate started increasing.
"We had them under pressure and they were beginning to creak but then we let them out of it.
"Look at David Wallace's try - that was the game plan, but we didn't always get it right.
"We probably made the highest number of unforced errors in a long time. Little errors accumulated.
"Last week we let Italy out of their 22 cheaply and we did the same against France.
"The difference is France can shift and put pace on the ball. We can do better than this but we shot ourselves in the foot."
France's performance may have sent shockwaves through the Six Nations, but D'Arcy believes it is the latest example of the game's rocketing standards.
"I look at the way the bar has been raised since 12 years ago - it has not been a gradual increase," he said.
"It's getting steeper and steeper every year. We're happy that we can play under that pressure, we just have to play better than we did against France."