Some games are glorious. Some games fall from the skies like ticker tape, demanding celebration and cheer as their birthright. This was one of those, a straight-running, hit-shipping classic to warm limbs and joints that would otherwise have seized up on a day of merciless cold. When it ended Ireland were 30-21 winners and had put on the board the launch pad win so depressingly robbed of them here two years ago. Damp it down all they like, the championship is more than just a vague possibility now.

Declan Kidney couldn’t have asked for a whole lot more from his first Six Nations game. His side contained the early French fizz and replied with a dash of their own. They scored three tries, all with their origin in priceless line-out ball won by the other-worldly Paul O’Connell. And they closed out the win with the ruthlessness of prison wardens when the possibility of a late wobble presented itself.

“I took the job because I just think so much of these lads,” Kidney said afterwards. “They work so hard, they have so much pride in this thing. We give out to each other and we cajole each other during the week and it’s great to have a day like this for everyone to enjoy.”

France were brilliant at times, and decidedly not at others. They ran the ball as the sea hits the coast. It was brutal and breathless, as relentless as it was inarguable. It was rarely complicated or contrived, just a matter of finding a hole in the opposition defence and pouring through it. If it sounds insultingly simple, that’s nothing compared to how it looked from the stands. They could reduce Shakespeare to a Power Point presentation without losing any of the beauty.

Their opening try was a classic of the breed. Receiving the ball on his own 22, Clement Poitrenaud trampled over Ronan O’Gara as if the Munster man was no more than a log-roll on an assault course. And with that one movement, they were away. They ran the length of the rest of the pitch but, more to the point, ran the width of it too. First to the right, where Yannick Jauzion drew a Brian O’Driscoll tackle and offloaded with a desultory flick to Fulgence Ouedraogo and then wide left where Sebastien Chabal and Maxime Medard combined to put Imanol Harinordoquy away for a quite brilliant try.

As a tone-setter for what was to come, it was perfect. Ireland were reminded that there is more to life than kick-and-chase and more to winning than minding your Ps and Qs. A couple of O’Gara penalties kept them within a score and before the half was up they were ahead thanks to a sonnet of a try of their own.

Rob Kearney – whose main contribution up to then had been some stunning catches under the high ball – engineered room for a gallop. When he in turn put Tommy Bowe away, the place went orbital. A quick recycle, a switch pass by Paul O’Connell and Jamie Heaslip had only Poitrenaud ahead of him and 70,000 throats-worth of torque behind him. His sidestep to beat the French full-back was almost decadent in its execution.

We had a game now. Lionel Beauxis flicked a drop goal at the tick of half-time to make it 13-10 to Ireland but that was scrubbed within minutes of the start of the second half, Brian O’Driscoll finally getting the one-on-one with an opposition out-half that he’s been craving oh these many years. He lined Beauxis up from a simple line-out move, licked his lips and cleaned his plate. O’Gara’s conversion made it double scores (20-10) but this game had grander aspirations than the fizzle-out most of the ground would have taken at that point.

Back duly came the French. With five minutes, they’d halved the margin. With Beauxis in possession just outside the Ireland 22, Julien Malzieu hared off the mark while most eyes were still on the out-half. Beauxis saw him when nobody else did and chipped for the corner to send the winger home. Another Beauxis drop goal made it 20-18 with just under half an hour to go.But Ireland weren’t for leaving this behind and when substitute Gordon D’Arcy wriggled over from four yards out on 66 minutes, it was clear that this game would have to be prised from their cold dead hands.

“We never doubted ourselves,” Ronan O’Gara said. “I thought we showed great composure and had huge confidence. That doesn’t just happen on the morning of the game, it builds through the week from Tuesday on. In the room this morning, Donncha [O’Callaghan] asked me was I nervous. And I said, ‘No, I’m looking forward to it actually.

’”And why wouldn’t he? After this, the whole tournament is worthy of giddy anticipation.