France are growing before our eyes but Ireland assisted the process. Ending a 10-year winless streak in Dublin removes another millstone from around their necks.
Gaël Fickou is a sizable lump. An unbelievable underage talent, his career stalled until Shaun Edwards walked into Marcoussis with the lifeline of Defensive Captain.
Weighing in at 100kg, Fickou is not easy to haul down but the six metres he made before and after the Billy Burns speed bump on Sunday created Charles Ollivon's try as much as Fickou's offload or Antoine Dupont's artificial intelligence (the speed he arrives at rucks has to be computer programmed.)
There was a time in rugby, about 10 years back, when your outhalf could be a turnstile. Danny Cipriani was worth the gamble at club level because of his ability to unlock defensive systems that had yet to be invented. Ronan O'Gara was almost always going to kick the goal Burns missed, so defenders on either side of La Rochelle's rising coach would be primed to never leave him exposed.
David Wallace knows what I mean. Eventually, I snapped back when Ronan would be giving it "a yard this way, Darce, another yard!" as I tried to predict what was happening at breakneck speed in front of us.
So you fill the gap, protect your 10, knowing he will deliver the points to win Triple Crowns and all the other champagne uncorking days that Ireland are so far away from in 2021.
No international side can afford to carry a defensive liability anymore. Not unless he possesses unique gifts and even then you are going into a Test match with a seven-to-10-point handicap. He needs to be worth double that.
It means the actual defenders cannot set themselves for contact. That is why Matthieu Jalibert could check and step through the tackles of Robbie Henshaw and Josh van der Flier, before offloading to Julien Marchand. That is why the damn burst.
Fickou is not the same as Virimi Vakatawa or “Rolo” (The horse) Aurélien Rougerie, who ran clean over me once upon a time. He should have been stopped close to the tackle-line.
Any attack worth its salt will open Ireland up with Burns in the team. Italy included.
Having said all that, Harry Byrne is being talked about in Wes Hoolahan terms before he has played in the Champions Cup. Andy Farrell's management has enough problems without looking indecisive or – worse – ruining the steady progress of a gifted 21-year-old.
Especially when his older brother Ross is settling into life as a Test outhalf.
The entire situation continues to be very, very messy.
Selection was wrong, and it has been wrong in several departments – Exhibit A: pushing Finlay Bealham into loosehead against Georgia – since the World Cup ended.
The head coach has made some mistakes. The lack of a wise old head – like Fabien Galthié has in Edwards or Eddie Jones has in John Mitchell – is proving very costly for Farrell.
Hopefully it does not prove his undoing during this World Cup cycle.
Calling up Craig Casey only to leave Jamison Gibson-Park on for the full 80 minutes tells you what they really think of the young Munster scrumhalf. He is not ready, and I do not see the point in exposing Harry Byrne to that sort of judgment call.
I accepted a few weeks ago that this could become Ireland's worst ever Six Nations. How low we go is now on the coaches. Never thought I'd write this but Italy in Rome has a wooden spoon vibe to it.
This sort of talk needs to be stamped out.
The championship has been weird. Wales can still do the Slam. Scotland keep proving that an attacking blueprint does not necessarily translate into a winning one. It would take a resounding penny to drop in Carton House for Ireland to design a plan to beat England on March 20th.
There are some positives. The defensive lineout is a genuine weapon. It had a lot to do with keeping France from cutting loose. The solidarity within the group is always nice to hear about, although I preferred winning to friendship, with the former tending to create an unbreakable bond anyway.
The coaches need to ask themselves: do we want loyal, lifelong buddies or do we want to look back and say ‘we earned all that silverware’ with a nasty streak.
Andy Farrell knows what it takes to win. He's been doing it since he was a teenager. He has the DNA of a Rugby League champion.
Unfortunately, this is a different sport.
Ireland, to my mind, currently operates off an Organised-Heads-Up strategy. Note: the organisation comes before the heads up.
For every step forward – set piece solidity, the individual form of Hugo Keenan and Tadhg Beirne – this team lacks the very element their attack coach Mike Catt embodied as a player; Ireland do not have a second playmaker. Back in the day that used to be Brian O'Driscoll. He would pop up wherever an unorthodox spark was needed. He made us unpredictable.
Because so many players have cemented their place in the backline – Garry Ringrose, Robbie Henshaw, Keenan – I struggle to see how we solve the second playmaker role until Joey Carbery returns.
Ciarán Frawley has the look of a strong, creative inside centre but who is going to call for Henshaw to be dropped?
I presume James Lowe’s value will increase as he settles into Test rugby. He loves a pass out of the tackle. He is the best ball carrier in the team. Let’s shape some heads-up rugby around him.
An offload is only an offload if it finds a recipient. Gregor Townsend knows what I am saying. Scotland put too many balls on the ground but they are moving in the right direction with ball players in Stuart Hogg, Finn Russell and Cameron Redpath.
The offload is a symptom of a well planned attacking philosophy. France gifted the Aviva Stadium 12 of them because they made 11 clean breaks. Ireland, for the record, made five offloads and had four clean breaks. The Telegraph has Ireland bottom of the Six Nations with 54 carries for every offload. France are top with nine carries before they connect the dots.
There is a reason for this. Most of the voices in the current management were part of the Joe Schmidt decade when offloads were all but removed from a ruck-focused playbook.
The game has evolved. All the other major coaches ensured as much after 2018.
Ireland are stuck in the mud, not to mention injury ravaged after losing their opening two Six Nations games for the first time in their history.
Either instinct or instruction had them kicking the ball away in the face of multiple opportunities to attack. And no matter how many times we see it, kicking long is not a form of attack. It is putting pressure on the opposition.
This situation can get worse in Rome.
The plan to go over France’s rush defence did not work and the coaches must take responsibility for that. It is equally true that onfield responsibility never materialised. They did what they were told. They kicked. We watch a team lacking in game breakers or the tactical headspace to change up.
James Ryan, Conor Murray, Johnny Sexton and Caelan Doris are missing, so that matters. Not that any of them can bring the yardage of a Seán O'Brien or creative brilliance of O'Driscoll. Ireland do not possess those players at the moment. There is individual excellence from Keenan and Henshaw but they are the tinder, not the spark needed to ignite Ireland's attack.
Again, this puts the emphasis on the coaches to utilise the talent at their disposal.
The performance in Italy must yield two returns: firstly, a victory. Secondly, not a victory by any means. After 18 months together, more evidence of a particular style is now needed.
Lowe could become a primary option at first receiver. Get over the gainline at all costs because Italy coach Franco Smith is no mug. His team lacks international quality in almost every position, yet they have opened up the English and French defences.
They will be ultra physical. You cannot avoid a direct challenge in rugby. Beirne poaches the opposition ball better than anyone, so he has to be retained in the starting XV. Tadhg is not an international secondrow when compared in size to the French pair, or Kiwis or English or South Africans (who are also the French pair). Move him to blindside and muscle-up the backrow with Rhys Ruddock at seven.
Bring James Ryan and Ronán Kelleher into the team and all of a sudden it is a heavyweight pack. One the forward’s coach could put his name to.
To ignore form will only open the management to accusations of blind loyalty and no coach will survive for long under that tag, not when they are losing. No contract is that cast iron.
Ireland’s attack under Catt’s direction needs to click. Show us what is happening on the training pitch. Like the way O’Connell got the lineout humming in one month.
If the coaches do not evolve Ireland will continue to regress. Henshaw will have to cut back against the grain to conjure something from nothing. CJ Stander will run into brick walls all day long unless he is put into scenarios that yield real value from his incredible commitment.
Farrell’s Ireland are effectively entering the business end of their third campaign – between Six Nations and Autumn Nations Cup – with no chance of silverware. The Ireland team I played on has been down this road before. Ruining the title aspirations of Scotland and then England can be translated into progress.
Or it can get worse. Don’t forget 2013 when Declan Kidney’s time as Ireland coach ended with a Roman holiday.
