Ireland 22 France 15

Brian O'Driscoll lived up to his pre-match hype to star in a historic 22-15 Ireland win over France in Saturday's Lloyds TSB Six Nations clash at Lansdowne Road, Dublin, scoring the only try for the Irishmen -- albeit a dubious one -- in a fierce and committed display.

In combination with the equally cunning Rob Henderson in the centres, O'Driscoll's outstanding run down the left wing early in the second-half was reward for a varied display from the Irish, which also saw five penalties for stand-off Ronan O'Gara.

France applied pressure at stages, but were an incohesive and often wasteful unit when in possession, although their two second-half tries from Pelous and Bernat-Salles set up a thrilling end to a superb advert for Six Nations rugby -- often derided for its predictability.

A fiery and fascinating first 40 minutes produced no tries, but plenty of drama as Ireland dominated possession and territory, but crucially could not reflect their dominance fully in the score, going to the interval at only 9-3 in front.

France's excursions in to the Ireland half were restricted mainly to the long punts of Christophe Lamasison, that was before his sin-binning in the 32nd minute for a high arm in the face of Tyrone Howe -- which in truth was more clumsy than malicious as Howe changed direction and the reflex grab from the Agen stand-off saw him catch the Ulster wing in the face.

A typically noisy sell-out Lansdowne Road crowd had to wait all of four minutes for their first score of the day, when Ronan O'Gara struck a penalty, but a cagey first 20 minutes from both sides saw Lamaison tie the game at 3-3 after 18 minutes, before Ireland really started to carry out their threats to throw the ball around in their potent backs division.

O'Gara missed a kickable penalty on 20 minutes, before Brian O'Driscoll gave the fans their first glimpse of his lightning acceleration, jinking with quick feet through the French back line before streaking away down the left wing.  With support dwindling though, he was forced to punt forward, and although an impressive kick found the corner, Ireland ultimately came away scoreless.

O'Gara put his side six points up in first-half injury time with a hammer blow of a kick, a penalty from fully 50 metres which flew over with some to spare -- and for once the Dublin wind did not have much to do with it as the sides went in with Ireland 9-3 up, and in the ascendancy.

The Munsterman started the second half where he had left off the first, striking over another penalty to nudge Ireland further past an increasingly disorganised and apparently stunned French side.

But the biggest break was yet to come.  From midfield just inside the France half, the ball was worked right through the hands to inside centre Rob Henderson -- whose hat-trick put Italy to the sword last week.

Henderson jinked his way past one tackle before having the good sense to wait and recycle the ball back as the numbers came.  From the crowd of bodies Brian O'Driscoll suddenly burst clear, with that trademark acceleration plain for all to see, and as he burnt away down the left wing it looked as if he would be bundled in to touch.  However the Leinster man ducked under the attempted tackle and apparently downed the ball before taking the corner flag with him in to touch.

The video referee controversially confirmed the crowd's view of the replay -- which appeared to show O'Driscoll bounce the ball as he went to touch it down, and Lansdowne Road exploded in to life as Ireland led 19-3 after O'Gara's outstanding conversion from the touchline.

Another O'Gara penalty saw Warren Gatland's side extend their lead, but with the French resolve apparently gone, they summoned up a try of true Gallic grit, turning down a kick at goal from short range to go for a powerful rolling maul, which also needed video adjudication before captain Fabien Pelous could claim the score, with lamaison converting to set up a thrilling last 20 minutes at 22-10 down.

With a try now vital if they were to salvage anything from the match, France coach Bernard Laporte brought in strike runner Christophe Dominici for the last ten minutes, and from virtually the play after the visitors nearly scored, when scrum-half Carbonneau -- in for the suspended Galthie -- broke from five metres out, but kicked when it looked like the try was on and wasted the chance.

France did however get the crucial try a minute later when the ball was worked right to the lively Bernat-Salles, who in the same manneras last week against Scotland, accelerated in to the corner from ten metres out for a try, and in the same blow almost doubled the average blood pressure in Dublin with the score at 22-15 and five minutes to go, but Lamaison scuffed the conversion from the touchline to slightly ease the pressure as Ireland summoned on Kevin Maggs to tighten the midfield for the impressive but tired Rob Henderson.

Ronan O'Gara missed another penalty attempt as France piled on the pressure, but Ireland's willingness to run the ball saw them keep the majority of possession as injury-time approached.

Australian referee Scott Young finally put the Lansdowne Road crowd out of their misery after nearly four minutes of added time, in a game which saw Ireland firmly establish themselves as the main rivals to England in the quest for the Six Nations Championship, with the March 24 meeting between the two sides in Dublin pencilled in already as a potential championship decider.

Ireland coach Warren Gatland, who has repaid the faith shown in him by the selectors after many were demanding his head when Ireland conceded 50 points to England in last year's Six Nations opener, was understandably elated.

"We justified the confidence shown in us and showed real backbone when we came under pressure for 15 minutes in the second-half," the 37-year-old Kiwi said.  "I am delighted both with the result and the manner in which we achieved it," added the quietly spoken former All Black reserve hooker.  His French counterpart Bernard Laporte, who is faced with a second successive Six Nations failure, suggested rather lamely that if O'Driscoll had been in their side they would have won.  "The Irish have an extraordinary attack and put us under a lot of pressure," the bespectacled 35-year-old said.

"However, if O'Driscoll had been on our side then we would have won the match," he added.  Laporte, did, though praise his side in the excellent defence they mounted against a furious Irish onslaught.

"We gave away too many balls particularly in the first-half but I thought the defence did really well in stopping the Irish attacks," he said.

The Teams:

Ireland:  1 Peter Clohessy, 2 Keith Wood (c), 3 John Hayes, 4 Mick Galwey, 5 Malcolm O'Kelly, 6 David Wallace, 7 Alan Quinlan, 8 Anthony Foley, 9 Peter Stringer, 10 Ronan O'Gara, 11 Denis Hickie, 12 Rob Henderson, 13 Brian O'Driscoll, 14 Tyrone Howe, 15 Girvan Dempsey
Reserves:  Gary Longwell, Emmet Byrne, Kevin Maggs, Andy Ward
Unused:  David Humphreys, Brian O'Meara, Frankie Sheahan

France:  1 Pieter De Villiers, 2 Raphael Ibanez, 3 Sylvain Marconnet, 4 David Auradou, 5 Fabien Pelous (c), 6 Olivier Magne, 7 Christophe Moni, 8 Christophe Juillet, 9 Philippe Carbonneau, 10 Christophe Lamaison, 11 Philippe Bernat-Salles, 12 Richard Dourthe, 13 Franck Comba, 14 David Bory, 15 Xavier Garbajosa
Reserves:  Abdelatif Benazzi, Serge Betsen Tchoua, Christian Califano, Christophe Dominici
Unused:  Olivier Azam, Gerald Merceron, Christophe Laussucq

Attendance:  50000
Referee:  Scott Young (Australia),
Touch Judges:  Chris White (England), Iain Ramage (Scotland).

Points Scorers:

Ireland
Tries:  O'Driscoll B.G. 1
Conv:  O'Gara R.J.R. 1
Pen K.:  O'Gara R.J.R. 5

France
Tries:  Bernat-Salles P. 1, Pelous F. 1
Conv:  Lamaison C. 1
Pen K.:  Lamaison C. 1