Apart from Oyagi, it was their out-half who impressed - every kick had perfect flight, weight and height. After the match I asked our out-half why he couldn't kick like that - I could have won every ball in the air.

Most out-halves can hang a ball in the air long enough to get their big men underneath it - some can do it better than others. Lionel Beauxis won the game for France last week by dropping one of the best kick-offs in the history of the Six Nations. To be able to place it perfectly under the pressure he was under was immense - had he miscued, the game was Ireland's.

The key to it - 4.5 seconds of hangtime. It gave the entire French pack the opportunity to get underneath the ball.

Sure, Jerome Thion got his hand to it - Paul O'Connell couldn't take the blame for missing it, he was nowhere near it.

Fatigue - not concentration was the key factor. Even though Ireland's kickoff drill, receptions and deliveries were poor all day, and have been historically, they knew what they had to do but were unable to physically deliver. Ireland had kept France scoreless for 66 minutes - that requires huge concentration, application and courage. Ireland's maul in the 75th minute took 66 seconds to go exactly 20 metres with most of the forwards operating on empty tanks - it took huge measures of physical and mental strength to stay up, go forward, reset the maul when it stopped or slowed and maintain discipline as the French tried to stop it.

Most people would not be aware of how physically draining it is to go even 10 yards. Ireland were spent after it and when the ball dropped short of where they expected it to go they were a second slow to react to it. The kick was a master class in re-claim rugby - the French played it brilliantly.

Yannick Jauzion played two very important parts in the try's execution.

The first one was obvious; he came forward and retrieved the bouncing ball.

The pill made its way to David Marty, he was taken down over the gain line by Shane Horgan five metres inside Ireland's 22, just on the 15-metre tramline.

The next play showed you precisely why the French knew exactly what they were doing. Mignoni fed Jauzion;

instead of punching straight at the gain-line, he took a diagonal line, made ground and was tackled on the five-metre tramline. He wasn't trying to beat anyone - he merely brought the ball 10 metres wider, all he was doing was taking play to the extreme of the pitch - stretching Ireland - there would be tired donkeys in midfield with an extra metre or two to cover.

Vincent Clerc, who was by a metric mile the best player on the pitch, just couldn't believe his luck. The man who had poured his heart and soul for 90 minutes was parked in front of him with a big E on his petrol tank. Clerc has electricity flowing through his veins - Thomas Edison got his legs to step in and then out to put the lights out. It was agony.

On the way home this fella told me three times, "ah sure nobody died". If he had said it a fourth time I would have disproved his theory. Something did die - a chance - a chance for a champion group of players to seal their status with the grandest prize. It shows you how difficult it is - this was their best chance in decades.

Luck and fate played their part in the sense that France could have run away with it. They conspired not to. It was galling that once Ireland had grasped the psychological initiative it was cruelly whisked away from them, as they had done enough to see the game out for a win. There was more to it than their failure to orchestrate a two-minute game closure sequence though.

Referee Steve Walsh did indeed have a part to play - he is like the cockerel who thinks the sun rises just to hear him crow.

How I judge him is on consistency - not consistency of interpretation. In the 45th minute, France were on the attack - Ireland were actually in trouble as French gave width to the ball.

Fortunately there was a crash-test dummy in midfield. Pascal Pape knocked on, the ball went loose and Pieter de Villiers picked it up and tried to shovel it to David Marty. Geordan Murphy saw it happen and stepped into the pass and was clean through.

Steve Walsh called the play back.

As the players came back Walsh said, "knock-on blue - I blew my whistle before he picked the ball up". From the video I had, Murphy had the ball in his hands and had a step taken before the whistle blew. Most people with certainty would have guessed the same as they saw it live. The biggest problem was how he called it and the evidence is damning in the whistles that he called minutes after the Murphy intercept.

In the 48th minute, Ireland had strung a good passage together - Leamy and O'Connell had picked and gone off the recycle Boss fed D'Arcy, who knocked on. As the ball went forward, Walsh's left arm went out to indicate a scrum to France - his whistle stayed in his hand. Seven seconds later, no advantage had accrued to France so he whistled play to stop and gave France a scrum.

Twelve minutes later, Imanol Harinorduquoy spills the ball on the backline. Walsh's right hand immediately goes up to indicate a scrum to Ireland - however the French number 7 can't hang on to the ball and Murphy applies shoe leather and eventually Ireland get the ball 50 yards up the paddock. From their own 10-yard line to deep in to the French 22 - France throw in but Ireland had got good advantage.

Compare and contrast with what had happened minutes earlier. When Pape knocked the ball on, Walsh did not extend his right arm to indicate a scrum to Ireland - he blew as soon as he could get the whistle to his lips. Where is the consistency? To my mind it was badly refereed. The French forwards couldn't see Mr Walsh bring the whistle to his mouth because he was 12-15 metres behind play - nor would any of them have caught Murphy. It was a try.

Marcus Horan's situation was interesting too. In the first couple of minutes Horan burst away from the base of a ruck after stealing a ball. As he went down the touch-line, he chipped the ball when Pascal Pape came to meet him.

Pape legitimately bumped him and as Cristiano Horano took the dive, Steve Walsh gave him a mental yellow card and stuck the scene into his memory banks. In the interim, Horan exhibited an astonishing display of athleticism and dexterity to keep a low ball out of touch and back inside to Horgan - no other prop in the world could have done it.

Roll forward to a penalty conceded by the French for offside. Walsh's arm went out and he communicated the offence to Ireland - they knew they had a penalty - that was after the French had gone off-side on their own 10-yard line after Trimble had gone forward. Ireland kept the ball until Hickie fed Horan. Horano chipped the ball at the French 22 and sure Harinorduquoy held him back and Poitrenand impeded him - that's one for the pub. He was millimetres away from collecting but he couldn't and the French cleared seconds later.

Walsh played advantage - the play went on for 23 seconds and Ireland progressed from the French 10-metre line to their 22. I have seen most refs play twice that amount in terms of time for advantage to accrue. That is not the point, neither is it the point that nobody had the presence of mind to stop the play by deliberately knocking on.

You might also say that Horano tried it on earlier and Walsh thought he was trying it on and was reticent about giving him anything this time.

The point is that, once Horan chipped the ball, Walsh was never going to call it back - he ceded advantage once the ball left his hands. If he had just kept calm, patient and, more importantly, the ball - Ireland would have retained and pushed France even closer to a concession. It was a key moment. Clerc's long, relieving kick added insult to injury.

The French had us figured out from the off. We like a structured game and we like line-outs in their half. The French used quick throw-ins and just kicked the ball back to us. Their execution and length were very good. Their back three won the battle of ping-pong.

Their defence was excellent too. It wasn't a rush defence - even though it came up very quickly, but they came from the outside in - it looked like their out-side centre was offside but that was not the case. Very hard to out-flank, the skippass would get man and ball and they patrolled the secondary with a sweeper for the dink in over the top. Very difficult to play against. England play a drift and should be easier to open up.

The difference was the cutting-edge.

Clerc, who was nowhere in the autumn, is pulled from the same place and literally wins the game. O'Driscoll had the misfortune of knowing that if he had been on the pitch he could now be sailing into Grand Slam dreamland. You get the sense Triple Crowns are not really enough for this team anymore.