Six Nations Championship/Ireland 19 France 26: Well after the final whistle, France were still conducting a slow, soak-it-all-in lap of honour. Their official allocation may have been 4,800 but judging by their presence in the South Terrace, the upper tier of the East Stand, and especially the terracing at the Havelock end, their numbers were double that. Ireland, team and fans alike, had vacated the premises.
Suddenly you realised how much Les Bleus had taken over the joint, but then again that had been the case from virtually 1.30.
As Fabien Pelous was being chaired off by his team-mates, you wondered how much his sheer presence and the totemic effect of his 100th cap had influenced matters. Contrary to French fears and Irish hopes, les Tricolores were indeed motivated by the carrot of winning the RBS Six Nations title, if not le Grand Chelem. But you suspect it went a whole lot deeper than that too.
Rejigged and freed from their shackles, France resumed where they had left off in the first half against Wales, perhaps not quite scaling those heights but this time maintaining their control for far longer. Their conveyor belt is still the best in the northern hemisphere, which is why Eddie O'Sullivan remarked, "If that's France in transition then heaven help the rest of us." Desultory and unambitious against Scotland and England, they'll now wonder why they haven't a third Grand Slam in four years to collect on their trip to Italy next week.
For all Ireland's despair at losing a shot at the Grand Slam in Cardiff next Saturday, their mood was one of bemusement and resignation, as ultimately this was a game France won more than Ireland lost. Winning the toss, they gave Ireland first use of the wind, which, as is custom hereabouts, blew from the Havelock end into the South Terrace, whereas most of Ireland's wins in these conditions over recent times have come when they had second use of the elements.
Clearly expecting the wind to do much of the work for them, Ireland's overused kicking game was also poor, and afforded France plenty of opportunity to counter-attack and keep the ball vastly longer. Unstinting though Johnny O'Connor was in his efforts to force turnovers and penalties at the breakdown, France held the leather much longer.
They also got at the Irish lineout in a way few teams have in the last three or so years, crowding out the space before the ball was thrown and consistently launching jumpers at the intended Irish targets.
The statistics showed France pilfered three of the Irish throws and coughed up only one of their own but this doesn't tell of the quality of the ball. Whereas Ireland were often scratching around for theirs off the deck, the French lineout was invariably a source of clean, go-forward ball - either through their rapidly advancing maul or delivered quickly and cleanly to their backs.
The most telling example was when they read Shane Byrne's throw for Yannick Nyanga to win the ball from in front of Malcolm O'Kelly without undue difficulty, leading to Benoit Baby's 36th-minute try after O'Gara had cancelled out a sweetly executed drop goal by Delaigue and a penalty by Yachvili with three penalties.
One had feared the French would take on the Irish drift defence in such a way. The transfer of the ball through Jerome Thion, Delaigue and Yannick Jauzion was simple yet classically French in execution, before the 22-year-old debutant straightened through to score from halfway untouched. Ireland, expecting to have the ball, didn't set their line correctly, Brian O'Driscoll shooting up to try and nab Delaigue, with Kevin Maggs sucked in as Girvan Dempsey and Geordan Murphy drifted out on their two men.
Similarly, the blindside winger Cedric Heymans ghosted through a midfield gap that O'Gara couldn't plug after Maggs had been drawn in by Jauzion's decoy run when Julien Laharrague had taken a high, skip pass by Delaigue to pop the ball back inside. Heymans duly put Christophe Dominici over, albeit with a strong hint of a forward pass.
It left Ireland with the proverbial mountain to climb in the second half, and playing catch-up isn't this team's strong suit. They clearly decided that if their Slam dreams were going to die, they were going to do so having had a go.
After O'Gara and Yachvili had exchanged further penalties however, it seemed France had staved off the attempted comeback when repelling Ireland's option for a close-in maul rather than a probably three-pointer. A three-pointer then would taken them back to within six points, putting pressure on France with 15 minutes still left.
But Ireland had comparatively little penetration, and shifting static ball through the hands sideways was one of the recurring images of the game.
There seemed an argument for making more use of the bench, though ironically Laporte's use of his replacements probably opened the game up again.
It's always a sign of a class player in any sport when he seems to have plenty of time on the ball and so it was with the underrated Delaigue here.
Granted, he had an armchair ride outside the French rolling maul and was well served by Yachvili, an intuitive footballer if ever there was one. Not only was the argument for bringing on Frederic Michalak less than compelling but, for the second game in a row, it perhaps backfired.
A piece of O'Driscoll magic (where would Ireland be without him?) when he accelerated past the flailing Michalak before veering inside Laharrague gave the home fans unexpected hope. Cue the first rendition of The Fields of Athenry, fully 73 minutes into the match time, which is a commentary on the day itself. It faded away almost as quickly, as did Ireland's challenge.
With the wind, Michalak pinned them pack, and despite five minutes left on the clock Murphy - in an unusually unsure performance - attempted to run the ball back.
Amid a hint of desperation, O'Driscoll may have had a legitimate complaint to Spreadbury when he decreed the ball was out, though the referee had declared loudly that it was, for Serge Betsen to take out Peter Stringer. When the magnificent Betsen then wrestled the ball from O'Kelly, Sylvain Marconnet had the presence of mind to put Dominici over in the corner.
They'd been stronger and sharper for much of the day, and no one could have any complaints about the final score.
SCORING SEQUENCE: 9 mins: O'Gara pen 3-0; 12: Delaigue drop goal 3-3; 20: O'Gara pen 6-3; 23: Yachvili pen 6-6; 28: O'Gara pen 9-6; 31: Dominici try 9-11; 36: Baby try, Yachvili con 9-18; (half-time: 9-18); 49: O'Gara pen 12-18; 64: Yachvili pen 12-21; 77: O'Driscoll try, O'Gara con 19-21; 83: Dominici try 19-26.
IRELAND: G Murphy (Leicester); G Dempsey (Leinster), B O'Driscoll (Leinster, capt), K Maggs (Ulster), D Hickie (Leinster); R O'Gara (Munster), P Stringer (Munster); R Corrigan (Leinster), S Byrne (Leinster), J Hayes (Munster), M O'Kelly (Leinster), P O'Connell (Munster), S Easterby (Llanelli), J O'Connor (Wasps), A Foley (Munster). Replacements: M Horan (Munster) for Corrigan, E Miller (Leinster) for Foley (both 70 mins). Not used: F Sheahan (Munster), D O'Callaghan (Munster), G Easterby (Leinster), D Humphreys (Ulster), G Duffy (Harlequins).
FRANCE: J Laharrague (Brive); C Heymans (Stade Toulousain), Y Jauzion (Stade Toulousain), B Baby (Stade Toulousain), C Dominici (Stade Français); Y Delaigue (Castres), D Yachvili (Biarritz); S Marconnet (Stade Français), S Bruno (Sale), N Mas (Perpignan), F Pelous (Stade Toulousain, capt), J Thion (Biarritz), S Betsen (Biarritz), Y Nyanga (Beziers), J Bonnaire (Bourgoin). Replacements: P de Villiers (Stade Français) for Mas (half-time), G Lamboley (Stade Toulousain) for Nyanga (55 mins), F Michalak (Stade Toulousain) for Delaigue (69 mins), P Pape (Bourgoin) for Pelous (71 mins), D Swarzeski (Beziers) for Bruno (78 mins). Not used: P Mignoni (Clermont Auvergne), D Marty (Perpignan).
Referee: T Spreadbury (England).
