BRENDAN GALLAGHER VERDICT
Rugby is more prone to hype than most sports with a large element of the big fight weigh in for most big matches so it was a joy for once to see that huge build up was fully vindicated.
This was a match and a half and then some between the two form sides in world rugby in front of 80,000 fans. Bloody marvelous. France deservedly won, Ireland weren't far behind and it's a bit of a shame the World Cup draw could see them meet as early as the quarter-finals next year.
I'm getting ahead of myself. For the time being, among other things, we should concentrate on the extraordinary athleticism of both sides which we sometimes take for granted. And in particular it's chapeau to France in this respect.
It's not that long ago that we berated French rugby – both their national side and the Top 14 – or its lack of fitness. Lumbering 20 stone giants with obscene BMIs some of whom could manage 25 minutes top whack before blowing a gasket either physically or mentally.
In fact I often wondered if their poor discipline was as a direct result of being so on the outer limit physically, that the red mist descended about the same time as they were seeing stars and flashing lights for oxygen debt. They literally weren't thinking straight anymore.
But now they even look different as they line up and belt out La Marseillaise. No more sucking in of stomachs and cheeks, no more squirming in those skin tight jerseys, France look lean and sleek as well as huge. A deadly mix.
You suspect that Shaun Edwards has been cracking the whip although anecdotally I am assured that head coach Fabian Galthie is also something of a training ground tyrant who insists on supreme fitness.
Even at 52 the former France scrum-half and captain looks as if he could easily trot on again for Les Bleus if required. Whatever, France are now fielding some remarkable specimens. Man mountain Paul Willemse – you just know that Bill McLarenwould have dubbed him ‘man mountain Willemse' – tips the scales at 135kg but moves around the park like a back rower and makes a huge dent both in defence and attack.
Uini Atonio, meanwhile, is unrecognisable from four or five years ago when he was that 25 minute part time warrior coming off the bench although I will let you tell him to his face rather than me.
Both had plenty left in the tank yesterday when they departed on 55 minutes as did possibly the best athlete in the entire French team, Cameron Woki who would make a sensational decathlete if ever the opportunity arises.
That was an interesting call by Galthie designed mainly, I think, to call Andy Farrell's bluff, or at least meet with fire with fire.
Ireland had no fewer than five British and Irish Lions to bring off the bench which must be some kind of a record and that was praying on French minds as the inevitable Ireland comeback got underway after the break.
“No more sucking in of stomachs and cheeks, no more squirming in those skin tight jerseys”
Ireland are too good a team not to contest the issue despite being forced to hang on for dear life in the first half.
Back to the great athletes that France are currently producing with not a spare ounce of body fat to be seen among the backs. Damian Penaud and Gael Fickou have the stately honed air of Olympic 400 metre runners but it is the diminutive Gabin Villiere who fascinates me.
Villiere looks like a bat out of hell sprinter but is as strong as an ox and I bet he bench presses more than any of them … well except for the sainted Antoine Dupont who when push comes to shove does everything better than anybody else. You just know Dupont will be the best singer on the coach back to the hotel as well.
Dupont's strength is off the scale and his piston-like hand off should probably be banned under the Geneva convention, a weapon of mass destruction to anybody entering the warzone.
Before we depart the world of supermen and supreme athletes, a word for Ireland's Mack Hansen and his glorious firsthalf try straight from Joey Carbery's perfectly judged restart. Absolutely superb and thrilling.
Hansen, the former Australia U20 star with a mum from Cork for which all Ireland raises three cheers, sprinted out of the blocks, didn't shorten his rangy stride once, rose gracefully to the meet the ball in mid orbit, landed perfectly – again without breaking stride – and roared home for the best try of its kind I can ever remember seeing.
It deserved more than the designated five points, how can that be worth the same as a prop nudging over from six inches after 30 tedious phases? We will be talking about Hansen's try in 50 years' time.
Mention of Carberry brings us to how Ireland fared without talisman Johnny Sexton. In one way they did just fine. Carbery was composed and even arguably Ireland's best player on the night and it will be a tremendous boost to his confidence to get that match under his belt.
But it would be wrong to argue Sexton's absence wasn't felt, mainly by Jamison Gibson- Park. Leinster's Māori scrum-half has the quickest, smoothest pass in the business and is electric on the break as he demonstrated with his fine try but kicking is not his strong suit and especially not boxkicking under pressure.
And that was a problem because without Johnny demanding the ball, Gibson- Park took on way too many of the kicking duties himself and the result was four or five less than optimum box kicks.
Ireland do not pick Gibson- Park for his kicking and although he had the best intentions – to help his young half-back partner – he needs to put his box-kick away in future.
