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Essentially you have to look at this as a glass half full or glass half empty scenario after what was a clichéd game of two halves.
On balance, I thought France didn't deserve to win and what made the defeat more difficult to take was that Ireland were within two minutes of winning the match.
But that doesn't change the final result and if you look on who was the better team on the day, I do think France were the marginally better.
You can't discount the psychology. France were totally on top in the first half but missed two crucial kicks at goal and missed three tries that would have put them out of sight at half-time. There will always be a psychological comedown from that.
On the other hand, Ireland walked in just two points behind at the break, knowing they should have been 20 points adrift, and they got a huge psychological lift from that. I think the whole match rotated around the psychology rather than the physical.
But Ireland have to ask themselves a question. If you look at Ireland's performances under Eddie, there have been too many games where they have started badly and have not gone out and established the kind of early control they would have hoped for. And that is a weakness that has proved fatal for this side.
If you look at last year in Paris, they were destroyed by France in the first 40 minutes and then they started playing catch-up and really worried the French. A year before that, France came here when we again had hopes of a Grand Slam and demolished us at Lansdowne Road.
I think what a lot of people may forget is that this is a very good French side. What I saw on Sunday was France visibly working towards the World Cup with a clear sense of purpose, with competition in the squad, strong at half-back, and with a very powerful pack. I think France on their own deck are going to very difficult for any team beat at the World Cup.
Ireland now have a big job ahead of them and England won't be that easy. They will come to Dublin on a positive note after two wins, despite beginning the competition as low as any point in the last two years.
Of course they didn't play well against Italy, but Ashton will be confident enough to make a couple of more changes with two wins under his belt. I'd be surprised if there weren't a couple of changes in the backline, particularly at centre. I think he'll bring in a quicker more creative player outside Farrell and that will make them very dangerous.
Wilkinson will also have an extra week to recover after two hard weekends having been out of the game for so long and England also come with a big pack, so it's not great from an Irish perspective.
But with five minutes to go on Sunday, I thought Ireland were going to win the Grand Slam. I have no doubt that had they beaten France they were on a downhill run to the Grand Slam with England, Scotland and Italy still to come, each match looking easier than the one before. You would have backed them at that point.
There is no doubt in my mind that Ireland's defeat was sealed when Brian O'Driscoll and Peter Stringer failed their fitness tests. You cannot lose the best player in the world and think that you are going to be as competitive. Neither can you lose the best passer of a ball at No 9 in Ireland, perhaps ever on these shores, and think that the backline are going to have the same space.
What we finished up with on Sunday was a backline that had less space in which to manoeuvre and one of the great players to work in small space not actually on the pitch. One thing Shane Horgan needs is space because his hands aren't as good as O'Driscoll's or D'Arcy's and the French ruthlessly cut that space down with a very aggressive press defence. I always thought France were going to win once I heard the news about O'Driscoll and Stringer. It was just too big an ask.
We watched Munster overcome by the occasion in Thomond Park and we've seen the same thing happen again. For the first time in my television career, I went out of the studio and stood on the terraces and sang Amhrán na bhFiann.
I was incredibly emotional. I didn't believe I could be that emotional at a rugby match. I think it was the most emotional I have ever been watching Ireland. The players could not have escaped that tension. Of course all the hype had to be done during the week because of the occasion, but ultimately the match was more about hype than performance in the last week and that got to the players.
I think Isaac Boss had a disappointing match and I wasn't surprised. He's a slower passer and I think his break is exaggerated. He made a couple of breaks against a bad Toulouse team and a poor Pacific Islands team and he didn't make a single break of consequence against the French.
He was easily marshalled by the French defence and his slower pass cost us. He's fine as number two, although I would have preferred to see Eoin Reddan come in for Stringer. I think he would have brought more to the game for Ireland on the day that was in it but we just missed O'Driscoll and Stringer, it's as simple as that.
I think O'Gara kicked well when it counted and kicked better from the ground than he did from the hand. O'Gara still didn't make a mistake when it counted and that's the most important thing.
We should, with a little bit of luck, be back at full strength for the visit of England to Croke Park. I was hugely impressed with Girvan Dempsey, I thought he was magnificent and I think Geordan Murphy did not have a good match. So I think it's going to be Horgan and Hickie on the wings, with the usual suspects in the backline.
However, I just have a nagging feeling that this whole thing is going to go wrong for us. The whole Croke Park situation, the achievement, everything is just going to make it very difficult for us.
I think England are the kind of team that Ireland won't like playing against. They are a big aggressive pack, with strong defenders closing down space and that's not the type of team Ireland like playing against.
Ireland would prefer to play against a side that tries to play open rugby against them so expect another tough one on Saturday week.
George Hook was in conversation with Shane Murray
