French rugby fans simply adore Dublin, they fly over in their thousands every other year to watch Ireland face “Les Bleus”.

When I was young, which admittedly is an awfully long time ago, they used to bring over live cockerels and release them on the field of play, obviously this is now outlawed, or it may just be that chickens find Air France fares a bit too expensive these days.

The Irish will charm you, entertain you, smile at you and then kick the living daylights out of you on the rugby field, there aren’t many more hospitable capitals on this planet than Dublin, as any Six Nations fan who has been there will happily tell you, once they have recovered from their lack of sleep and mind-numbing hangover.

Yesterday at the Aviva Stadium the match had the feel of a championship decider and ultimately that may well be the case.

France had a blip in round two against England, Ireland were blip-less, in fact there have been no sightings of blips in these parts for quite some time.

But at the Aviva Stadium France displayed an industrial beauty as they physically dominated one of the best sides in the world.

And It wasn’t all industrial, the backs painted pictures that would have put Renoir to shame.

The loss on 28mins of Antoine Dupont, to what appears to be a very serious knee injury, stunned France, but replacement Maxime Lucu provided his best game in a French jersey and was a major catalyst for everything that shone in Les Bleus attack in an unbelievable second half.

France led narrowly 8-6 at half time but a Dan Sheehan try on 43 minutes gave Ireland a 13-8 lead before three tries in twelve minutes from Boudehent, Bielle-Biarrey and Jegou took France ahead 32-13.

A Ramos interception on 75 minutes set up Penaud for a fifty metre run in which made it 42-13, France were home and hosed.

With a metaphorical glass of red and a Gauloise in hand they allowed Ireland two consolation tries in the final three minutes.

With ten minutes to go the French had a metaphorical glass of red and a galloise in each hand and allowed Ireland in for two tries that made the scoreboard look slightly more respectable.

The title is now in France’s hands when they face Scotland in Paris at 9pm next Saturday.