Six Nations Rugby: Watching events unfold in Murrayfield yesterday, one's thoughts went to the Irish squad watching from their base in Killiney.

Coming hard on the heels of a performance that will have done little to lighten the pressure on Eddie O'Sullivan, his coaching staff and the team, by comparison, with one bound, France are free again. To put it another way, France are France again.

Given licence to do so by his employers, Marc Lièvremont remodelled his team. And not only did they beat an error-strewn Scotland as convincingly as the 27-6 scoreline suggested, les Bleus rediscovered many of the virtues that defined French rugby before they were systematically Laportised.

With the polished 21-year-old outhalf François Trinh-Duc looking like part of the furniture more than a debutant, France did not kick the ball once in the first 10 minutes.

They played with depth and width, the ball moving seamlessly in front of the body through soft hands. They took quick taps, counter-attacked liberally and offloaded in the tackle. Their outside three saw oodles of ball. The sinewy, deceptively strong man of the match, Vincent Clerc, poached two of their three tries. They threatened many more - this was after one week together.

Admittedly, the Scots were woeful, and we've yet to see this French team perform under pressure. But they looked like they were enjoying themselves, which is more than can be said for Ireland.

In any event, Ireland head for Paris to face O'Sullivan's nemesis, seeking to arrest a run of six defeats in a row, where recent memories are not exactly happy, and where they have conceded an average of almost 37 points in their last four losses there under the present coach.

Forewarned is forearmed? Ireland at least have a good idea what to expect in an expectant Stade de France. At least it's February, rather than a sunny spring Parisian Saturday in March.

Despite several good performances in Ireland's 16-11 win over Italy, none better than that of Ronan O'Gara, whose safe hands on the tiller and expert kicking were the enduring positives, the performance aped the trend of the World Cup, again lacking the direction and conviction you'd expect from a team with this experience and talent.

Yet O'Sullivan yesterday clung to his theory that he was happy to at least have obtained a win. In rejecting the suggestion the players have lost belief and confidence, he denied Ireland had now played poorly in eight successive games.

"I thought there was a lot of good stuff in yesterday's performance. We had a lot of line breaks and we scrummaged very well. It wasn't what we saw in Rome last year; it wasn't bells and whistles, but I was happy enough with what I saw, that we were trying to do the right things. We just didn't click when we needed to. Yeah, I think there is belief there and the fellas themselves were happy enough last night. There was a realisation that the pace and intensity is a notch up on what you're used to with your provinces."

He sounds like a coach in denial.

Tomorrow O'Sullivan will announce the Ireland team and replacements to play France. He could do worse than start picking players in form and in their positions.

One change will, sadly, be enforced upon him. As the coach said succinctly on Saturday, Gordon D'Arcy's season is over after he sustained a fractured forearm - about the first break the poor lad has had in yonks.

Understandably, O'Sullivan was not inclined to go into his options in detail yesterday other than to say Andrew Trimble, Rob Kearney and, in the Ireland A defeat to the England Saxons on Friday, Tommy Bowe all had good games.

Perhaps just as revealing though, O'Sullivan confirmed he had to consider Shane Horgan, "for a fella of his experience and his ability on the day. You have to factor that in."

Accommodating Bowe and even Murphy at fullback along with Kearney would be an interesting, potentially more potent option, but that won't happen.

If O'Sullivan's unforgettable logic of the World Cup applies, will Murphy even play?

The decision to replace Simon Easterby with Jamie Heaslip as soon as the former's 10 minutes in the bin was completed may be a signal that this will be how the backrow starts in Paris, which would inject some ball-carrying into the pack.

They could go further and install Bernard Jackman as hooker, but both O'Sullivan and his assistant Niall O'Donovan yesterday made much of Ireland's lineout (they lost three of their throws and made no inroads into Italy's) and with issues concerning Jackman's darts, Rory Best may start again.

Accommodating an out-and-out openside, to help quicken ruck ball and provide the missing link to some of those line breaks, increasingly looks the most necessary change of all, but again, that won't happen.

Next Saturday in Paris now looms as the day when the train could hit the wall. It's as well last Saturday's power failure cut off the coach's box from the sound outside - or more accurately the lack of it.

A 2pm kick-off against the Italians after that World Cup was never likely to make Croker throb. And there wasn't much to sing about. But not one rendition of The Fields?

Just as well too that the cameras didn't zoom in on O'Sullivan more than once near the end, when there were the distinct echoes of boos from pockets of the supposedly 75,000-plus crowd, as there were when the final whistle sounded.

Tellingly, only Marcus Horan raised his hands at that point. The rest just slumped to their knees or dutifully shook hands with opponents. By the time Ireland had formed a tunnel at the sidelines, half the crowd had left, thus leaving the pockets of Italian fans to cheer their team off, their chants of "I-tal-ia" having been the game's most persistent backdrop.

It shouldn't have come to boos but, unfortunately, O'Sullivan has clearly lost the vast majority of the rugby public, whatever about the team. True, the current scenario is akin to that of two years ago at this exact point. Ireland had beaten Italy 26-16 after a dismal autumn and trailed 43-3 after 50 minutes in Paris, whereupon they cut loose against a wilting French and scored four converted tries in the last quarter. The good times rolled for another 14 months, with two Triple Crowns either side of two quality displays in New Zealand.

But the World Cup debacle was no autumnal series, while the team and the coaching regime are two years older. That was then, and this is very much now.