"Black Sunday" screamed the headline on page three of yesterday's L'Equipe as French journalism's sporting bible tried to reconcile events in Sunday's Six Nations match at Stade de France.

The banner headline on page one, "Green, Les Bleus" (the latter an affectionate term for the French team) was a little deep, but the strapline left no one in doubt about who deserved to win. "The adventure and vitality of the Irish, epitomised by Brian O'Driscoll, was the reason why the Tricolores were beaten again at the Stade de France."

Midi Olympic offered the headline "Old Nightmare From The Young Green Guys", before their focus too turned to Ireland's brilliant young centre.

"The three arrows of O'Driscoll" was how the paper described his three-try haul, while another headline simply offered "A Star Is Born".

The 21-year-old Blackrock College centre dominated French coverage, and tributes flooded in from players past and present.

France's outhalf Gerald Merceron admitted: "O'Driscoll was very hard for us to contain." Centre Stephane Glas also lauded the efforts of his Irish counterpart.

The editor of L'Equipe, Christian Jaurena, penned an editorial under the heading "Happy the ambitious" in which he paid a remarkable tribute.

He mentioned the death of former French great Jean Dauger this year, a man considered the spiritual father of great French centres like Boni, Maso, Cordoniou and Sella, and said that Dauger would have applauded O'Driscoll on his performance. He also considered O'Driscoll a spiritual heir of Dauger.

In Liberation, former French international prop Serge Simon was very critical of the referee's interpretation of the scrummage, pointing out that the French were not allowed to scrum aggressively and therefore could not wear out a very fast Irish pack.

French coach Bernard Laporte, when not bemoaning the current state of the French Championship, saluted the tactical acumen of his counterpart Warren Gatland.

"David Humphreys coming on the pitch was tactically perfect. We gave away too much ball to Ireland and Humphreys was very astute tactically.

"We have 700,000 players in France in comparison with 200,000 players in Ireland, so therefore even with 10 injuries it should not be a problem to beat Ireland. But they played very well and deserve a lot of credit for the way they played."

Finally L'Equipe's choice of picture for page one, a shot of Peter Clohessy dispossessing French scrumhalf Christian Laussucq, was accompanied by a caption which included the following reference to the Young Munster prop as the "old campaigner of the Irish pack".

Tomorrow he will be 34 years young.