WHAT’S RARE IS wonderful, but Paul O’Connell still can’t put on the rose-tinted glasses to look back at Ireland’s title-clinching effort in Paris last year.

The records show a 20 – 22 win for Ireland, but O’Connell came off the field angry that his side were hanging on to the result rather than closing it out assuredly.

The heart-in-mouth TMO moment followed a missed Jean-Marc Doussain penalty and allowed Ireland take the Championship.

“The end of the game still annoys me and annoys the squad,” says the competitive side of O’Connell’s brain while the experienced end battles to accept that it was his fondest memory of facing Les Bleus.

“But it was great to go over there and get a win. I think it was their best performance of the Championship, and to lift the trophy on the day was brilliant.”

The conflict between O’Connell the competitor and O’Connell the wise old leader is because he has tasted victory just twice over France. The trumpeted finale that focused on Brian O’Driscoll, and the symmetry of him bowing out on the stage he made his mark, washed over the fact that the captain hadn’t been around long enough to enjoy the experience of Paris 2000 or Dublin in 2001 and 2003.

For O’Connell, beating France means winning the Championship. He will lead his side out today aiming for a repeat of the 2009 performance that paved the way for a Grand Slam.

“France certainly have an excellent record here, and while we haven’t spoken about it, I think players are aware of how big a task it always is for Irish teams whenever we play France.

That’s why last year it was such a great day for me, because it was something that happens so rarely, for us to beat them. We’re well aware that even though we won last week, we know how much better we need to be than we were last week in so many areas across the pitch.”

The clichés about French teams not having the heart for big away days or failing through inconsistency are tough to accept for Irish supporters that can count two wins over their European foe in 12 years. Having played in most of those encounters, O’Connell can only predict that Philippe Saint Andre’s side will show their most brilliant side.

“I think those[flair] clichés ring true: we do plenty of analysis on them as individuals and I’ve seen [winger, Yoann] Huget do two passes through his legs in his player profile. They have fantastically talented players all across the park. They seem to have a licence to play when they want to and have a crack, as we’ve seen throughout the autumn, that fantastic try by Teddy Thomas.

I suppose the other thing is their maul, they’ve mauled really well. I think in recent months, particularly, and last week again their maul was brilliant. They’re a big strong pack.”

“We analyse and prepare for the very best of what France are going to bring. That’s all we look at and all we have looked at this week. We’re trying to prepare for their best line-out performance, their best scrum performance, their best maul performance, trying to prepare for that unpredictability they have in attack.

“That’s what we’ve looked at, what we’ve trained for on the pitch. That’s what we’ve been set up to do. That’s what we’re prepared to defend, not when they’ve been poor.”

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