JOHN O'SULLIVANtalks to the disappointed Irish centre about the lessons of Paris and the team's determination to make amends at Twickenham

IT WAS more grimace than smile, his sense of frustration palpable. Gordon D’Arcy was in the process of ruefully recounting the moment in the Stade de France on Saturday evening when he was undone by the bounce of a rugby ball.

There wasn’t a trace of self-pity, just a shrug in underlining that misfortune can often command centre stage in sporting theatre. The Ireland centre eschewed a conversation about the intangible; what may or may not have happened had his coruscating break and beautifully executed chip and chase not been thwarted by the match ball’s decision to play hide and seek behind a post.

In taking that opportunity to grab the match’s first score, this Six Nations contest may have panned out differently but speculating to that effect is pointless. The bare facts of the freezing Parisian evening make for stark reading. Ireland were the authors of their own misfortune, based on a script with a one-word theme – errors.

There were big ones, small ones, careless ones, those induced by pressure and those borne of desperation, tied together in one big bundle. In seeking an analogy to describe this defeat, D’Arcy’s summation is probably the most apt: “It’s hard to play when you tie one hand behind your back.”

France survived a handful of skirmishes close to their own line, some by dint of luck, on other occasions through superbly aggressive defence. Down the other end of the pitch they were ruthlessly precise. When chances presented themselves, they gobbled them up. The kept the scoreboard rolling at a decent lick and as Ireland’s desperation in chasing the game increased, pounced on every mistake.

The French mugged their visitors in the collisions, impressive line speed and tactically-adept reading of the game facilitating a host of turnovers. D’Arcy agreed: “On turnover ball we would always go with two passes but very often on the second pass, we were too flat and we would get hit man and ball, knocking it on.

“It was probably our highest unforced error count in a long time. I don’t know the exact numbers but you’d have to go back a couple of years to find those numbers in terms of turnovers. France were very consistent, while we were up, down, up, down.

“You look at the body language on the pitch after the first 20 minutes. We were all upright and they were hands-on-knees. We just didn’t capitalise on that and then our error-rate started increasing. We talked about a rocket, starting like a train in those opening 20 minutes. We kept the pressure on and they were just beginning to creak when we let them off.”

There is rarely a good time to see a player march off to the sin bin but Cian Healy’s 10 minutes in rugby’s slammer saw Ireland concede 10 points and ostensibly appeared the catalyst for a shift in momentum to the home side. It doesn’t though explain Ireland’s facility to spurn some decent try-scoring chances on the basis of technical, and to a lesser extent, tactical shortcomings.

D’Arcy addressed the matter. “You look at David Wallace’s try, not in terms of describing it as simple but in essence that was the game plan (we were trying to implement). When we got it right that’s what we were capable of; when we didn’t, it was often a case of lads being too flat.

“In fairness Mathieu Bastareaud put in some brilliant man-and-ball tackles but we knew it was coming and that is down to bad play from us. (In fairness) he can only play what is in front of him and you take your hat off (to him). He cut us off at a time when we had two or three players on the outside.

“It’s a reality check, kick in the arse, whatever way you want to put it. We spoke after the Italy game about changing little things. We probably got a lot of things right that we wrong in the Italy game but we were slack in other areas this weekend.

It’s about marrying the two.

“You look at the French back three. What’s the point in kicking the ball to them? They are the best broken field runners. (Clement) Poitrenaud got away a few times but overall I thought our defence was solid.

“There was no cheap, length-of-the-field tries. The way to beat France is to come here and play rugby against them, like New Zealand do, like we did last year. We ran at them. But our error-rate was low last year whereas it was very high this time.

“You look at it and see that the breakdown was good, the set-piece was good and the defence was (fine). Even if they busted us we managed to scramble well. It came down to our turnovers in crucial areas.

“The championship is still attainable. There is an attitude in the dressingroom about the opportunity that the next match presents. It’ll be a fairly honest week to say the least when we come together (for the England match).”

D’Arcy, arguably Ireland’s best player in Paris, spoke about opportunities but this time in a positive context. Travelling to meet England at Twickenham presents a chance for this team to redress some aspects of their Paris performance and also potentially offer a benchmark on where they are along evolutionary road that culminates in New Zealand.