O'Gara thrives on that simple winning feeling

Donal Lenihan spoke of travelling to Paris for 18 years and returning home clutching nothing more substantial than shattered dreams, the litany of defeats preordained by the brittle attitude of successive Irish teams.

Last Sunday was the first time he could truly have enjoyed Paris in the spring, albeit in a non-playing capacity.

Ronan O'Gara, Peter Stringer, Simon Easterby and John Hayes probably wonder what all the fuss is about. Three international caps, three victories: one visit to Paris, one victory. Next benchmark please.

Forget the flippancy, but the confidence drawn from successive victories and youthful inhibition underpinned Sunday's success.

O'Gara concurs: "The confidence thing is definitely a big factor. Winning is habit forming. At one stage last season Con won 11 games in-a-row, this year there has been Munster's run of success and now with Ireland. "It's very strange, but you don't fear losing in itself. We are encouraged to use the ball and I think that's evident in the way we (Ireland) play.

"It has made making mistakes easier in the sense that we are not afraid to try things," he adds. "That's great, and it is a very positive aspect of the success we have enjoyed. It's funny. Trevor Brennan was asking what's going on. For some guys like him, it's much tougher having suffered the opposite run. It makes you appreciate how lucky you are."

So what about Sunday's victory? "To be honest, it hasn't really sunk in. So much happened on the day, it will be another few days before you start to absorb everything. People have been very kind, coming up and shaking your hand, and that's good. "On a personal level I was quite happy. In the first 15 minutes I didn't have a great deal of ball. I spent more time tackling and I was pleased with that aspect of my game. "I wasn't striking the ball out of hand as well as I could: there were a few wobblers. My passing was good and I was reasonably content with the rest of my game. "I had no problem being substituted. With a player of Humph's (David Humphreys) ability and the way in which he has played when coming on, he is always going to get a chance."

O'Gara identifies with the "learning process" cliche. "After the first match I just wanted to prove that I could play at international level. I concentrated on my own game. Playing against the French at home is a different prospect but I was determined to enjoy myself. We tried not to give them too many lineouts after a while, and that's why I tried to keep the ball in play.

"I thought our follow-up tackling was excellent and most of the time we made big yardage."

His memories of the day will remain vivid. "I remember coming out of the dressing-rooms and all I could see were these masses of people. You couldn't even see the sky, it was amazing.

"The other would be the final whistle, pure jubilation. We went down to where most of the Irish fans were and given a rousing reception. It was typically Irish, like we had won the World Cup. It was great. "Now it is a case of putting all that behind you. Come next Saturday it will be forgotten and the emphasis thereafter will shift to the Wales match."

O'Gara's return to terra firma was manifest in his obligation to attend a video briefing at Cork Constitution with regard to Saturday's game against Terenure College, several hours after returning home from Paris. Time to move on and meet the next challenge.

Meanwhile, French coach Bernard Laporte has blamed an overloaded schedule as one of the reasons for their defeat, and threatened to quit next year if the domestic calendar is not reformed.

Laporte wants a total overhaul of France's system with the introduction of an intermediary championship between the French championship and the top flight international level.

Laporte, deprived of 10 key players at the Stade de France because of injury, said that he would resign if changes were not brought about.

"We are victims of a system that we must break into two. If it does not change in a year then it's goodbye," warned Laporte who took charge of the national team after the World Cup.