Six Nations: Irish summon spirit of famous Paris win

Twelve years ago Brian O’Driscoll scored a stunning hat-trick of tries to trigger the nation’s first win in the French capital since 1972. That afternoon rocketed the 21-year-old O’Driscoll to superstar status and Ireland’s performance that day has grown ever greater with each subsequent failed visit to the Stade de France.

The record of just one victory in four decades of campaigning in Paris weighs heavily on Irish shoulders and O’Brien will only be satisfied by victory in tomorrow’s rearranged RBS Six Nations fixture.

“Looking back at stuff like that gives you a little kick and incentive to win,” said the reigning European player of the year. “Our motivation is to go out and join them and that’s what we’ll be looking to do.

“I’m not thinking about our record in Paris, it’s more about the fact we can’t afford any more slip-ups in this championship. We have to win every game remaining if we’re to leave ourselves in the best possible position at the end of it. We’re going to France to win, that’s as simple as it gets. Beating them would give us confidence, but we’ll have to work hard for it.”

Ireland return to the Stade de France to play a fixture that was originally scheduled for three weeks ago until a frozen pitch forced the latest of postponements. The change could yet work out in their favour as they now face the tournament’s second favourites on the back of a morale-boosting 42-10 victory over Italy rather than a narrow defeat to Wales.

“We’re definitely better prepared this time. We had the two weeks off which gave us time to gel with each other,” said O’Brien. “We’ve worked on our defence and attack so we can’t have any excuses for not fronting up and playing to our potential.

“Our performance against Italy was good because they aren’t pushovers. It was hard to break them down.

“We’ve worked on a couple of areas of defence that weren’t up to scratch. We definitely took a step forwards in attack and against France we need to go a little bit harder at the ruck.

“France are good and they live off mistakes. You can’t cough up easy ball to them, that’s when they’re at their most dangerous. We can’t give them space and allow them to use that offload game that they love so much.”

How many Irish fans make the journey to France this time remains to be seen, though it is likely to be a far smaller number than last month.

“Whatever support is there, I’m sure we’ll hear them. It will be a full house regardless,” said O’Brien. “We won’t think much about it, we’ll just get on with our job on the field.”

Irish captain Paul O’Connell, meanwhile, was impressed with France’s clinical performance in their victory at Murrayfield last week. “France seemed to have an awful lot of confidence in their scrum against Scotland,” explained O’Connell. “They didn’t quick tap on any of the free-kicks they won – they went for the scrum. It’s obviously a massive part of their game.

“They are a top-class team. Scotland had them under pressure but when France get a chance, they’re deadly.”