Gerry Thornley On RugbyTwenty four hours on and it doesn't get any better. A win away to Wales in the bank, four points up on France at home with two and a half minutes to go, England coming to Croke Park in a fortnight's time with the great man back in harness - opportunity knocked.

That's what makes it so hard to take, and if we're feeling like that, one can only imagine how the players felt as the reality of the missed opportunity gnawed at them on Sunday night. One's sympathy for them was only accentuated by the manner they dragged themselves into the game and ultimately even gained some ascendancy over an initially dominant force both on the pitch and the scoreboard. For sheer effort once again you couldn't fault them.

Had the final whistle sounded with 78 minutes gone there would even have been an argument for saying Ireland deserved to win. Following another of their curiously sluggish, standoffish starts, when they showed too much respect to France or were nervous about the sheer scale of a magnificent occasion or possibly were inhibited by Steve Walsh's comments post-Millennium Stadium, they smashed into blue shirts with the kind of physical intensity and irreverence one suspects England will experience in a fortnight.

Without playing especially well, Ireland had taken the game to France - albeit from a long way out - and the controlled aggression of that 20-metre maul alone would have been a suitable winning effort.

But put the shoe on the other foot for a second. Imagine Ireland had trailed 17-13 entering the last two and a half minutes at a raucous Stade de France on Sunday. Imagine Ronan O'Gara's hanging restart had provided a target just beyond the 10-metre line for the chasing pack, that Donncha O'Callaghan or Paul O'Connell had extended their left hand on the run as Jerome Thion did to deflect the ball infield, that Shane Horgan had latched on to it the way Yannick Jauzion had, that they launched Gordon D'Arcy on a good cutback line as David Marty had, that having explored the blindside O'Gara hit Denis Hickie in midfield from the recycle with a peach of a pass and he cut through the French defence to score beside the posts. Would we be mentioning, much less bemoaning, the bounce of the ball?

We would have hailed it as a brilliant, nerveless and winning endgame, and rightly so. You can go a long way to making your own bounce of the ball, as Lionel Beauxis, Thion and Jauzion did for that restart play, and for manufacturing that try France deserved their win. It sucks, but cravats off to them.

In the cold light of day, the Irish players also know that had they secured the restart, or had they had not drifted so hard with the numbers there to support John Hayes, they'd have won.

It also has to be said that - handling the ball much better overall - France played the more purposeful rugby for much of the first half and on the run of play deserved to be more than two points ahead at half-time. Ireland, for all their bravery and willingness to take on France both closer in and through the middle (though again not too often out wide), never threatened their line as much in the second period.

France's scrum was the more aggressive, their lineout had more attacking variety and they counter-attacked better; their willingness to take quick throws being the launch pad for 10 of their points. Nor did their running threat ever go away, and for Ireland to keep them scoreless for 66 minutes (helped by Geordan Murphy's brilliant cut-out defensive play, two missed penalties by David Skrela and a Beauxis drop goal off the upright) was a monumental effort.

For sure Ireland haven't quite scaled the heights of last autumn, although those performances always had to be put in the context of where the Wallabies and the Springboks were at the time, no less than a well-primed Ireland. As Eddie O'Sullivan conceded yesterday, the French man-on-man, rush defence is a good deal more cohesive and effective than the Boks' autumnal version, which suffered for having a winger, Bryan Habana, shooting up out of position in midfield.

Ireland's back play relies heavily on O'Gara taking the ball flat, hitting D'Arcy or Brian O'Driscoll in midfield, usually with a cut-out pass, and taking it from there. When they analyse this game, Ireland will reflect that they might have varied their depth and sought to go around France, made more use of passes back in to inside runners or tried a little grubber or two, and with Shane Horgan missing in Cardiff and remaining in midfield on Sunday, the cross-kick has not been employed either.

Nor, once again, did they play with anything like the width France used. Thus, despite looking as sharp as a razor, Hickie has had to use his superb footwork and pace mostly through the middle off broken play, and Murphy saw relatively little of the ball as well.

Yet, through a superbly worked try of their own, their physicality at the breakdown, repeated willingness to carry into contact, with D'Arcy, David Wallace, Hickie and co making yards out of nothing, by unrelentingly trying to take the game to a formidable, aggressive French team, they had manfully worked their way into a winning position.

That Ireland didn't close out the deal, or that France brilliantly snatched it from them, undoubtedly gives Les Bleus an edge for the return meeting in the World Cup in September. For sure Ireland can improve too, all the more so with O'Driscoll and Peter Stringer back, but injuries are part and parcel of rugby, and especially in the World Cup, a team will have to rely on more than its starting XV.

Either way, you have to presume France will improve as well when hosting the World Cup.

Nonetheless, this Irish team couldn't have a better pick-me-up than the thought and sight of 15 men in white coming to Croke Park. With all the historical baggage entailed, with a 5.30pm kick-off under lights on a Saturday night, this game was always going to have the headiest atmosphere.

And, with O'Driscoll back, Ireland's defeat on Sunday will almost certainly provoke one hell of a response.

gthornley@irish-times.ie