Bernard Laporte has failed in his attempt to convince his country and players that Ireland are not to be feared in the upcoming World Cup despite their 20-17 win in Croke Park, according to Ireland coach Eddie O'Sullivan.
Toulouse winger Vincent Clerc snatched a win from Ireland's grasp when he crossed the line in the last minute to bring the curtain down on a dramatic debut for rugby in the home of Irish sport.
France coach Laporte claimed afterwards that the objective was to prevent Ireland from winning the Grand Slam and to land a psychological blow on his opponents ahead of their group meeting in the World Cup on September 21st.
However, O'Sullivan claims the narrow win has only served to underline French fallibility. "I wasn't surprised that Bernard Laporte was open about his belief France have landed a psychological blow ahead of the World Cup," he said. "He did say last week that this was the game France had targeted in the Six Nations. But now he might be feeling a little more insecure than a week ago.
"If they'd come to Dublin and won well, then they would have had a psychological advantage going into the World Cup. But the way they won the game, right at the end, will have sown seeds of doubt in Laporte's mind.
"A win is a win, but it was a hardly a result to convince him that France are a much better team than Ireland. I can't imagine that after yesterday his mindset is France should not be afraid of Ireland - which is the attitude I think he wanted to develop," added O'Sullivan.
The Ireland coach added that the tables will be turned in France and the pressure will be on Laporte and his team to deliver to an expectant home crowd.
"He said it was a pivotal game and that if France won in Dublin they would win the Six Nations and score a psychological blow ahead of the World Cup," said the Ireland coach. "But when we meet France in the World Cup there will be a huge amount of pressure on them to deliver."
O'Sullivan is reluctant to play the blame game after Clerc skipped through three tackles - from John Hayes, Neil Best and Denis Hickie - to deliver the knockout blow at the death, but his defensive coach Graham Steadman was disappointed this morning having prepared his men for just that sort of situation.
"France didn't score for 66 minutes and they didn't look like scoring," he said. "All week we talked about how they would be a threat coming infield and looking for mismatches and that came back to haunt us.
"Clerc took his opportunity well but if you look at the footage we had three players within two metres of him to stop the threat.
"Unfortunately no player nominated under pressure. It's a harsh lesson to be learnt but I like to think it won't happen again."
Ireland's face England in Croke Park on February 24th in a must win encounter if O'Sullivan's side are to remain in the hunt for the Six Nations title and back-to-back Triple Crowns.
