Stephen Kenny almost made it to the very end of the pre-match press conference at the Parc des Princes without having to hear about Thierry Henry's left hand.
But the obligatory reference to the now legendary 2009 handling of the football in the World Cup play-off between the two sides eventually reared its ugly head in the final question of the media briefing.
A measure of French guilt perhaps, still lingering in the consciousness of the natives, who would go on to have a hellish time at the tournament as the team refused to train following the Nicolas Anelka tete-a-tete with coach Raymond Domenech. France failed to win a game in South Africa and went out with one point from three group games played.
Kenny seemed to enjoy the moment of nostalgia involving controversy that had nothing to do with him, and while he said that it was no longer a motivation for the nation, he did ponder that assistants Keith Andrews or John O’Shea might have a different reply.
"It’s not something we use as a motivation as we have enough motivation to try and play a world class team like France," said Kenny. "Going to Paris to play them is a massive, massive motivation.
"My two assistant coaches Keith Andrews and John O’Shea were part of that squad and I think they remember it well."
The manager, to his credit, was upbeat throughout and appeared to be in much better form than you might expect following a week where he lost his main striker to injury.
The early September sunshine, perhaps, lifting the mood, and maybe even bringing back some form of ironic recollections from the start of the summer where the team spent nine days warm weather training for a game in Greece that turned out to be played in quite moderate temperatures.
But it will be warm in Paris tomorrow night; on the eve of the game it was 29 degrees Celsius at kick-off time, and the manager said that it is something that they have been focusing on this week.
"We checked last week to see the predicted temperature for tomorrow at 9pm, it could be 29 or 30 degrees even. It will be very warm and that is something we have to contend with," said Kenny.
"We have hydrations plans for the players so they are exceptionally well hydrated and we’ve focused on that since we came into camp."
Attacking options might be causing some concern for the manager as he listed five forwards unavailable ahead of the game, while adding that he felt the Ferguson injury was not necessarily a result of last weekend’s match but an ongoing issue with his knee, which causes too much pain to play at the moment.
But in the defensive department, the manager has several options, and appeared confident that he will fill the right wing-back role with the minimum of fuss.
He also paid tribute to two players who have forced their way back into the squad, and in light of current circumstances with John Egan carrying a knock and James McClean lacking game time, back into contention to start – Shane Duffy and Enda Stevens.
"We have to consider that," said Kenny, when asked were the two players in the mix for selection.
"Enda has been out of the squad for a long time having missed a good bit of last year with Sheffield United but has acquitted himself really well for Stoke and worked really hard to get fit in off season when out of contract, and it is a real credit to him.
"Shane has played the opening six games [for Norwich], I’ve seen a good few of the games and he’s done well, so we have competition."
And looking ahead to the double-header against France first, followed by Holland at home, the manager was still talking up his side’s chances of qualification, admitting that a huge result is needed to play their way back into the mix in Group B.
"It’s a tough group and we knew that, but we want to qualify, that’s our ambition regardless of how tough the group is," said Kenny.
"We need to try get a big victory in the games in France and Holland to put ourselves back in contention and we will endeavour to give everything of ourselves in pursuit of that."
