"So is this your toughest run-in ever to an international?" Simon Easterby stood on the steps of the foyer of his team hotel and looked above the microphones and cameras.

"No, not really," said the veteran backrow.

"Is there desperation in the team selection?"

He continued to stare ahead.

"No, I don't think it's desperation," he said, without wavering. "Jerry (Flannery) coming in for Rory (Best) with his injury. Eoin Reddan deserves his spot, the number nine. He played well last season for Wasps. He'll add a different dimension from what Peter (Stringer) could bring. It's exciting."

Player angst is last week's story. The falling on swords has stopped. Ireland have entered a mode where the criticisms and rumours and loaded questions are met with a stoic's equanimity.

Maybe they imagine us in the nude. Maybe they are humming Humpty Dumpty as the Aussies do when confronting the haka.

Irish game faces are on. Media sceptics bedamned. There is no crisis.

"I think we performed against a strong Georgian side. The scrum was okay; the lineout was very good," continued Easterby, towering above the small group.

It was pointed out Georgia had put their second team on the pitch. Third-world rugby side fields B team against first-world wannabes? The question was laced with ridicule but Easterby was unflappable.

"When they pulled on that Georgian jersey they played pretty well," he said. He waited for the next question as we waited for him to expand.

It was quite a performance from the Llanelli captain.

There is a hunger to the media these days, which sharpens as a weakness appears in the subject.

The questions have become more menacing, more personal, more pejorative and a great deal more direct. But Easterby was bulletproof, in his own world.

His chiselled frame stood there almost motionless on the marble stairs, his voice not rising or falling. Perfectly robotic.

It was a demonstration of self-discipline, self-containment and no small degree of defiance as questions snapped around him like annoying mosquitoes.

"So, is putting in Reddan a risk, Simon?"

"No, I don't think it's an issue. France haven't seen as much of Eoin Reddan as they have of Peter.

"Maybe it will work in our favour and put just a bit of doubt in their minds as to what he will bring to the game."

He went on to say the Irish team had tried to score off every phase but had become overly anxious and must now try to learn to be patient and go through the phases without forcing positions that lead to errors - too many errors. He said Ireland needed to relax in order to find the game they want.

"So Ireland need to go out to face France in Stade de France in front of 80,000 and relax?"

It was another freighted question. But the players have become used to irony and sarcasm and oxymoron and hyperbole. These two weeks have been an education.

Easterby pointedly turned his head and answered.

"Yeah," he said. "Try and go out and enjoy the game, enjoy the atmosphere and enjoy the fact that we are in a World Cup.

"We have a good chance of beating France. I know we've been written off by the press."

The questions dried up.

Without looking at anyone in particular, Easterby said, "Thank you, bye." Then he turned and walked away.