JOHNNY WATTERSON gets some positive vibes from players who, although disappointed, feel Ireland are on the verge of something great

“PENALTIES, TURNOVERS, it’s hard to say now,” said Jamie Heaslip. The feeling was that in the number eight’s brief opening thoughts so soon after the match he might have said quite a lot. Outscoring the French but losing the game was difficult. How it was lost more frustrating.

A powerful display as well as a try from a player just back from injury didn’t dilute Heaslip’s controlled disappointment. There were no fulminations on how Ireland lost just the biting reality of defeat.

“Two tries ahead and they’re still in the game . . . and they’re still in the game. They get a try and they’re ahead. We get a try and they are still ahead. You do, you do have to look at that. I think we played a lot of good rugby. A lot of positives; three tries to one, you think you usually win the game.”

There was some talking to the referee. Brian O’Driscoll had a chat. But the penalties kept arriving as France nibbled away, constantly, infuriatingly. But Heaslip declined to use that bolt hole as a place to hide. He knows the outcome of hitting the ref with a few chosen words. No, that’s not his style.

“I’m not going to say there’s a problem with the referee. The ref is the ref. He makes his decisions. He makes decisions, some good some bad, Sometimes you agree sometimes you don’t. We’ll have to look at the video and see which ones are in our hands.

“Even the way the game went. Two minutes to go and we’re on their line. You can’t blame a guy for knocking a ball on. Everyone is trying. They are not going to do that on purpose. If we did hold on to the ball, take through phases you see what we did, scored three tries going that way. They took their scores. Forced the penalties. It is very frustrating.”

That is it with Heaslip. It’s the bottom line. He’s not a player to colour a landscape when it is stark. It’s the way he plays rugby, honest and demanding but also not afraid to talk up Ireland on the back of defeat, nor, put the French in the place he believes they belong.

And that can often be a harder task than picking holes in your own team performance.

“I don’t think there is much in the sides,” he says of France. “I think we have a very good team. I think we are on the cusp of playing our best rugby that I have been involved in and they show how clinical they can be.”

But their coach Marc Lievremont gave them just four out of ten. “I don’t think it really matters. They won,” he says with damning conviction. “They are still on course for a Grand Slam. We can’t win a Grand Slam.”

But he hasn’t finished yet. He can see his own team’s flaws, why not the French chinks also, why not well, just be honest about it?

“I think anyone looking at that video will see we exposed them. You lads had them all hyped up thinking they’re the dog’s bollocks. I don’t think they are. I think we exposed a lot of holes in them. I think England can definitely cause them a lot of problems.

“There is no lack of belief, no lack of confidence,” he says of Ireland. “We are an exceptional good group of players here in Ireland. One of the main reasons we (Heaslip, O’Driscoll, Jonathan Sexton) are staying around is because I think we are on the verge of doing something great and playing some unbelievable rugby. I just think at times we give teams easy opportunities to take scores. We have to marshal ourselves more than anything else.”

For Fergus McFadden, it was a wretched afternoon after scoring his debut try. But that bright point was hidden away in the loud gasp of disappointment, the shadow of falling short on the day. His expression was blank but his words more optimistic.

“On the whole we performed a lot better than last week,” said the right wing. “We were finishing off the chances we were squandering in Rome. Between discipline and a few handling errors . . . they let us down a bit. Our shape at times was definitely much better than the French.

“When you score three tries to one, you are always going to feel hard done by losing a match. Unfortunately our discipline got the better of us. But that will be looked at.

“The lads are gutted and so am I. I suppose we just need to forget about it. Learn from what we didn’t do well . . . I don’t know . . . onwards and upwards, I suppose.”

That was the only line of the afternoon from McFadden or Heaslip that seemed to fall away towards despondency.

Onwards and upwards.