Eddie O'Sullivan called it "ugly". Declan Kidney said it was "hard work". David Humphreys conceded that Ireland had engaged in a "battle" at Lansdowne Road and Marcus Horan, standing in the spilling rain in the car park behind the West Stand, claimed it was "physical". Ireland's win against France, by consensus, had not been a thing of beauty.

Cast in the roll of fireman more than pageant judge, O'Sullivan doused the flames of ever growing expectations and had a word for his rookie prop.

"I thought the scrum was excellent today, particularly the two scrums late in the game where we put enormous pressure on them. I suppose that's not the norm, for an Irish pack to push the French around. There was a lot of talk about Marcus not being able to hold his end up at this level but I think that performance proves he is an international class prop. I'm very happy for Marcus. It has taken him a long time to prove it and he certainly did today."

Gary Longwell, hauled ashore with a hamstring injury, could even afford to be upbeat. The Ulster second row must now get a scan to determine how long the soft tissue injury will keep him out of the game. Two weeks to Wales and a terrific replacement in Leo Cullen chomping at the bit.

"Hopefully I'll be OK in a couple of weeks," said Longwell. "It was fine going into the match. I just got caught in a bad position and it seemed to go. I knew straight away. It was physical. The French are a world-class side and we're delighted. It was a game Ireland probably wouldn't have won three or four years ago. It's another big step for us to win that one, another step forward as a team."

David Humphreys emerged from the locker-room with his right arm in a sling. "Just a precaution, just a precaution, looks worse than it is," he quickly informed the gathering lest a rumour would escape.

"Today was all about the pack," said Humphreys. "The conditions were not conducive to playing decent rugby. It was just a battle. Our forwards hung in there and came out on top. It's frustrating for us not to go out and play a bit of rugby but we got the win. It felt like they were always verging on offside and we were the ones getting penalised all the time. But I'll have to watch the video. May well be that they are just very good at playing like that."

French coach Laporte sat with his duffle-coat drawn and his wire-rimmed spectacles slipping down on his nose, looking for all the world like a computer nerd who had crashed Six Nations security.

"We had some problems in the scrum in the second half, but we also missed players like Tony Marsh and Pieter De Villiers," he said. "With their culture from the Southern Hemisphere, they understand what respecting a team is about, they understand how to organise things for all the other players.

"You can't expect to win the game if you just give points back to your opposition. We lost against England because we made more faults than them and it was the same today. We have one positive point and that was our defence. We have the best defence in the Six Nations at the moment but we don't know how to win a game."

Ireland might just disagree. But quibbling in victory as Laporte and his deflated team grasped at straws would have appeared unseemly. Sure the French had a good defence but Ireland were more than satisfied with what they had in their pockets.