Well, French coach Bernard Laporte was uttering somewhat the same sentiments after Saturday’s game in Lansdowne Road, with a slight twist. ”Swap second-centres,” was the sentiment of the Frenchman, ”and we’d win.” Laporte was as right as Sarsfield.

It was always going to take something special to break the magnificent defence offered by the French, but ’special’ only begins to describe the Irish number 13. Brian O’Driscoll is pure magic, and whether through sleight of hand or sleight of foot, going though gaps that weren’t there a split-second before, creating yards of space from millimetres of openings, everything he did had the crowd mesmerised.

Oh, there were other outstanding Irish performers, whom Monsieur Laporte could also have considered for their exchange value, and it’s worth discussing some of those. But we’ll have to come back to that try, eventually. It was, after all, the game-breaker.

Inside-centre Rob Henderson had another huge day in a green shirt, to complete a centre partnership as good now as any in this hemisphere, if not in the world. Several magnificent powerful breaks up the middle, combined with stout defence. Yet at first, even he wanted only to discuss the prodigy.

”All credit to Brian, he didn’t play last weekend, but he came back this week and showed the class he’s got.”

But Rob, your own part? ”A lot of the rugby was played down the middle, but I don’t mind the bit of contact. Everyone talks about how skilful they are, but they’re also a very physical side, and they didn’t come to lie down. There were some big hits there in the centre, but fortunately we were able to hang onto the ball, to release Brian and Denis, and David Wallace in the open. The three of them played brilliantly today.”

And it was brilliant, to watch as a multi-talented attacking Irish team prodded and probed to try and find an opening in an outstanding French defence. That’s flashing Irish creativity against dour French defence - a turnaround, eh? Marshalling that attack was out-half Ronan O’Gara, growing in stature by the game. True, there was a flaw or two, but not all creations are masterpieces, not even from the masters. The genius is in being able to forget the error, rip it up, and create anew. O’Gara did that, his passing, line-kicking, garryowens, continually putting his side in pole position. ”Ah go ’way outta that!” was his reaction to the suggestion that his touchline conversion of THAT try was in itself worth almost as much as another try. It wasn’t, agreed, but after the long, nervous but ultimately successful wait for the video judgement, it WAS worth more than two points.

Back to that French defence, and all the probing to try and find the chink, the weakness. Everything was tried, inside moves, outside, skips, double skips, reverses, chips over the top, garryowens. Every move in the book, to no avail.

”Yeah, a lot of the ball was static, so you can’t really do much off that, just bang it into the pocket and start again,” O’Gara explained (not to be confused with ’excused’, a word happily missing from the Irish rugby lexicon these days).

”I thought Wally and Henderson made great yardage, and it wasn’t easy, they were very tight in midfield.” And there’s David Wallace and Rob Henderson again, popping up as surely as they did on-field.

But back to O’Driscoll, and that try. That piece of magic. Twice in a first half Ireland utterly dominated, he had broken free up the middle, but each time, France had left enough cover defence to prevent scores that would surely have smashed the already impressive Lansdowne Road noise-level record. When he did finally score, it had everything in it that makes this guy a standout. First, and fittingly, there was the initial powerful tackle-breaking break by Henderson; then, as ever, Wallace on hand to take it up. Finally, O’Driscoll.

The angle, the strength to break through the line, the 0 to 60 in powerbike-style acceleration-time; there was the absolute, utter, single-minded determination to score, with the line in sight; there was the speed of thought, the clarity of thought in the split-second when he could have been bundled into touch had he stayed upright, but instead, offered a smaller horizontal target as he dived for the line; and there was his speed of hand in forcing the ball downward. An eye-blink, and you missed it.

Was the ball down? Doesn’t matter now, but the video delay, and the repeated showings on the giant scoreboard to which all in the ground were glued, almost made it worth three or four for the price of one, as the crowd cheered each replay (”and surely 50,000 Irishmen can’t be all wrong!”, opined Mick Galwey). The man himself was sure. ”Of course it was, sure wasn’t it given? It must have been a try if it was given” - and there was that grin. The cheeky one.

”There are no doubts in my mind whatsoever!” No doubts now either, about the legitimacy of his genius. Make no mistake about it. There are some major talents on this Irish side, including but not at all limited to those named or quoted above. But barring injury, Brian O’Driscoll will be one of the greats.