Andy Farrell admitted that a fast start from a razor-sharp France left him questioning his side's "fight" at the Stade de France, with the Ireland head coach also conceding that the reigning Guinness Six Nations champions were operating at a "different level" at times during the 36-14 bonus-point victory for the hosts.
Ireland ventured to Paris depleted of troops, but the nature of the dominant defeat will set alarm bells ringing.
Louis Bielle-Biarrey resumed the fine form which saw him crowned player of the championship in 2025 with two tries, either side of scores from Matthieu Jalibert and Charles Ollivon.
Ireland eventually hit back through quickfire consolations from replacements Nick Timoney and Michael Milne, converted by Sam Prendergast.
But, despite a powerful impact from the Irish bench, France completed the job through wing Theo Attissogbe, with full-back Thomas Ramos landing a penalty and four conversions.
"Obviously France were playing a different game to us in the first half," a dejected Farrell told Virgin Media after the game.
"I suppose you make your own luck in this game and rightly so, with the way they went about their business.
"We created a few chances of the back of scraps on the floor or high balls, but that's the game.
"You've got to show a bit of fight and intent and we lacked a bit of that in the first half, which is very disappointing."
Ireland returned to the French capital for the first time since their agonising quarter-final exit to New Zealand at the 2023 World Cup and the soggy, slippery conditions saw the visitors miss an alarming number of tackles, much to the chagrin of the man in charge.
"It's intention isn't it," Farrell lamented.
"It was wet-weather rugby, but getting through tackles and earning the right to offload...
"It wasn't risky play, what they were doing, they were earning the right to offload because they were winning contact.
"Congratulations to France. They were on a different level at times.
"There was bit of a response - more than a bit of a response - in the second half, but they were worthy winners, that's for sure."
There were crumbs of comfort from that comeback that never threatened to result in a victory, with Farrell worryingly opining that a change of personnel matter less than a change of attitude.
"It wasn't rocket science," he added. "It was about going forward and a bit of grunting, the way they went about their business, and we got a couple of tries on the back of that.
"It's a pity that we couldn't get a few more in the end because every point matters in this competition, as we know."
Captain Caelan Doris (above) said: It's definitely not what we hoped or foresaw the start of our campaign going.
"We left ourselves too tall a mountain to climb in the first half…lacking a bit of bite definitely. Some class from them, but not good enough from us.
"We didn’t shut them down early enough. We allowed them to play some of their flowing, attacking rugby. Not good enough from us in the collision, our kick-chase let us down.
"Some grit and determination in the second half and a good impact from the bench, but not good enough overall."
Asked about those 19 missed tackles in the opening half, he said: "Not only was it 19 missed tackles, but the amount of offloads we allowed them get away through soak tackles.
"We had targeted a lot of dominant tackles because we know how good they can be when they get their hands free. We allowed them to do that way too much."
With pride well and truly dented, Doris searched for a positive, and insisted: "I think the bench made a good impact. There was some good resolve in the second half but we don't want to be a team that's chasing.
"We left ourselves too big a mountain to climb. And that's down to some passiveness in D, not being connected, not being dominant in collisions, allowing them to flourish and keep the ball alive in attack."
Doris also revealed details of the initial debrief in the dressing room after the game, although a far more comprehensive analytical dissection of an unsatisfactory performance must lie ahead.
"It was Faz that mainly spoke about coming back into work with an opinion," he said. "It doesn't start at zero. There's some good lessons to learn. There was a lot of good stuff in the prep.
"We're going to have to have a deep dive into how we can make that better. But there was a lot of good stuff in there as well. We're coming in with a proper opinion and seeing a reaction next week."
