"The players did not go out to make those mistakes but you do not expect that many in one game." The Irish coach said his team had given away "stupid tries" in the first half.

"For the first try, Tommy Bowe slipped coming into the defensive line which was just one of those things. For the other tries, we had an intercept, a block down and a spilled ball. Those are things that are schoolboy errors.

"We addressed the errors at half-time but we still made a silly mistake at the start of the second half for their sixth try. After that, we just stopped making silly errors, held on to the ball, ran at the French and took them through the phases."

Meanwhile, Ireland duo Brian O'Driscoll and Paul O'Connell are undergoing examination after sustaining injuries in yesterday's clash.

Skipper O'Driscoll was helped from the pitch in the 75th minute, but second row O'Connell managed to last until the final whistle.Both players missed the November series through injury and their involvement in the rest of the Six Nations has now been thrown into doubt.

O'Sullivan said: "Paul took a very heavy knock on the shoulder and is being assessed. We don't know the exact level of damage but he is very sore at the moment.

"Brian is exhausted. His hamstring tightened so we had to take him off. It was only his second game of international rugby this season and he ran out of steam."

Meanwhile France veteran Olivier Magne admitted they had to improve their concentration after offering Ireland a late lifeline during the Paris encounter.

After Ireland rallied with four quick tries midway through the second half, France just had enough to stave off their unlikely fightback.

Magne, who scored a try after just eight minutes on his return to the side, stated:

"Our first half was very good, the second half was not what we expected.

"It was an incredible start.

We were very motivated when the match began and we did well but we have to play like that for 80 minutes.

"We have to work a lot.

This team is not at its best.

We were very determined to finish this game well and we are very motivated for the next game."