REALITY hit home for many of the Irish rowing squad in Paris at the weekend after a World Cup regatta that left last year's Olympic coxless four outclassed and the two lightweight single scullers frustrated in their attempts to meet in a selection race-off.

An unusually quiet Irish four were last night reflecting on a weekend that has put expectations into perspective. The writing was on the wall during the Saturday repechages, but, having squeezed through to the final, the four's lack of international racing was laid bare as they struggled to get to grips with the pace and finished last, 11 seconds behind a Danish crew they had shared equal billing with just a few days earlier.

Gearoid Towey's hopes of putting his place in the scull beyond question were once again thwarted by Niall O'Toole's absence from the final line-up. A meeting that had been on the cards at the start of the weekend came to nothing when the former World champion, who missed the opening World Cup fixture in Munich with a fractured finger, was ruled out of any further racing by a virus.

With the two scullers still to race each other competitively this year, Towey needed a strong performance from Paris. Instead, his fifth place leaves O'Toole's seventh World championship challenge in the lightweight single looking increasingly secure; partly on the basis of the Commercial sculler's trial times and partly because Towey is seen as being more adaptable to a crew seat.

That option leaves the current lightweight quad with something to prove in this World Cup series, Lady Victoria's John Armstrong and Commercial's Emmet O'Brien being under particular pressure to improve on early season form. If there were any nervous glances over the shoulder though, they were coming from the German World silver medalists who felt the heat on Saturday in what was, to use Barry Currivan's coaching summation, a "dinger" of a race.

The German quad gained half a length in the first 500 metres hut after a succession of pushes from both crews they were barely a man up at the finish. Similar pressure was applied in yesterday's final and although the Irish had difficulties settling, they left Paris last night with some confidence.

"We let them get two seconds ahead at the 1,000 metres which was slightly more than we had anticipated, but we should pull them in another couple of seconds when we have our own boat," said Armstrong.

The quad's learning curve was nevertheless probably not the steepest. The London-based light-weight sculler Ruth Doyle and UCDL's Vanessa Lawrenson and Debbie Stack made their senior international debuts having been thrown in at the deep end. The pair's second place in yesterday's minor final keeps them in the running for the World championships.

With the British internationals on duty in Paris, UCG and Trinity might have expected easier passages through the heats of this weekend's other major regatta - the 10th Women's Henley. In the event, UCG's club eight and Trinity's college four were both beaten in their finals having already been through the mill in earlier rounds.