For better or for worse, France will be wounded, rejigged and still missing the influential Yannick Jauzion after their stunning, 20-16 defeat to Scotland yesterday. More pertinent is how Ireland respond to their shortcomings in labouring to beat Italy 26-16 on Saturday amid disconcerting signs that this performance suggests a deep-rooted malaise.

Against Italy, Ireland's tactics were puzzling - not least, it seemed, to the players. There was no discernible, definitive gameplan to go about beating the Italians, and they were chronically short of variation and again lacked intensity.

While the cliched citing of "opening weekend" might explain some of the handling errors and rustiness, this didn't stop Ireland routing Scotland 36-16 in Murrayfield on the opening weekend of the 2003 Six Nations or thrashing Wales 54-10 in the 2002 opener.

That, it should be recalled, was Eddie O'Sullivan's first game as head coach. Saturday was his 50th. Assistant coaches have come and gone since, but even at full-strength, with a week-and-a-half preparation, and confidence gleaned from the provinces, there is a staleness about the team which will be difficult for O'Sullivan to address.

The coach intimated there wouldn't be many changes when the starting XV and replacements for Paris are named tomorrow, and what few there are would be taken from the 30 in training last week, ie, the 22 employed against Italy and players "like Foley, Hickie, Reggie Corrigan, so you've an experienced group of back-up players there".

This, alas, means no place for Keith Gleeson, strangely on the outside looking in despite compelling evidence that he is in better form now than when a fixture in the side, and thus worth reinstating into a rejigged backrow.

A bench with more obvious impact potential, and one that might actually be employed, would be a welcome change too, but unlikely.

O'Sullivan, along with his coaching ticket of Niall O'Donovan (forwards), Brian McLaughlin (skills) and Graham Steadman (defence), held a Sunday debriefing and made clear the emphasis would be on rectifying much of what he admitted was a poor performance in the four sessions they have this week.

O'Sullivan cited winning 21 of 24 lineouts as evidence of "excellent setpieces", a view endorsed by O'Donovan, who said: "The start was poor, in that we threw two bad balls and that was down to them being smart. Jerry (Flannery) readjusted very well. They're very competitive and athletic, like the French will be next week, we'll just have to be a bit sharper, and make a better start.

"But we took five clean balls off them. The scrum ball was reasonably good, but we didn't really pressure them."

Against this, O'Sullivan admitted: "We kept the ball in hand a bit too much in the first half and struggled behind the gain line and forced the issue a bit too much. In the second half we probably kicked more ball and took more pressure off ourselves, which was the way to go about it, and we probably forced the game too much up the middle of the pitch."

He also agreed that the French are likely to emulate the Italians' blitz defence when they review the Irish tape themselves.

"But there were options against it and we didn't take the right options. We had chances, and we should have been a bit more accurate, and when you play against a blitz defence it's all or nothing for them and for you. That's the risk you take."

Scotland also applied far quicker line speed in defence against France, forcing all manner of handling errors, whereas Ireland drifted across the middle and backed off outside so much that they were tackling going backwards out wide.

"I think the main area of our defence is line speed," admitted Steadman. "If we sit off the French next week and give them the time and space we gave the Italians, they'll cause us a few problems. The guys know there was a little bit of indecision every now and again, but nothing too serious. The forwards worked tremendously well around the rucks and mauls against the Italians. But overall in 80 minutes we conceded three busts, so that's a good platform to work over."

McLaughlin echoed O'Sullivan's sentiments that Ireland struggled in the rucks.

"We weren't getting the man on the ball and the tackled player quickly enough. We were standing and maybe looking for the offloads too much rather than getting in and doing the hard work.

"In the first half we wanted to have a run at them, and maybe we just took that a little bit far," McLaughlin added. "Rather than maybe be a little bit more conservative and carry the ball into contact to give us the quick ruck, we looked for the offload maybe too much."

Some, but not much, of the criticism was deflected by the potential citings which were brought to the attention of the match commissioner, Rob Flockhart of Scotland. He has 50 hours (ie, 3.40pm today) to make a decision about whether to cite Martin Castrogiovanni for allegedly biting Simon Easterby, which could be difficult on the basis of video evidence, or Brian O'Driscoll or Denis Leamy for stamping, which seems unlikely, especially in the latter instance.

Should any of them be cited and found guilty, the respective bans for stamping are one month, at the "lower end", to three months (mid-range), nine months (top end) or a maximum of one year.

Alternatively, were O'Driscoll charged with illegal rucking, the possible punishment would be two weeks (lower end), six weeks (mid-range), three months (top end) to a maximum of six months.

With regard to biting, the possible punishments vary from six months (lower end), one year (mid-range), two years (top end) to a maximum of three years.

Losing O'Driscoll would be a huge psychological blow to a squad which looks short of self-confidence. Ireland desperately need a big performance next week. Alas, so too do the French, whose coach, Bernard Laporte, will now suddenly be under fire as well.

The stagnation in Ireland's performances over the last year will alarm some members of the IRFU, considering the approaching World Cup next year, and the move to Croke Park should also concentrate minds. Unless there's a dramatic upturn in performance, they might increasingly, if sadly, come to the conclusion that every week under this regime between now and then is a wasted week.

It wasn't, O'Sullivan admitted, a good performance. "I don't think we're going to make sweeping changes. It was a bad team performance in terms of what we're trying to do. Our defensive work was fine, our setpiece was fine, in attack they put a lot of pressure on us and we forced the game and we have to be more accurate with the ball."

Testing times.