Ok, Ok, people. So Brian O'Driscoll wasn't in the air when he was hit by Riki Flutey, as I said during commentary on Saturday night. It was only an observation with my eyes shut.

My feeling about blogging is that if you were to drop in as a stranger and you only had these exchanges to help you form an opinion of the English-speaking world, would you feel welcome, or would you worry that the e-ink might burn holes in your bodywork? This is only rugby. Let's put the kettle on and make an alien feel at home.

Weren't France good? After all the doubts about the direction of Marc Lièvremont's strategy, and the more immediate concerns over exhaustion as a result of releasing players for club duty, didn't they play well as a unit up front for the full 80 minutes, with Thierry Dusautoir an outstanding individual? The flanker even got away with the huge shoves he gave Ryan Jones at the tail of those late line-outs, thankful that François Trinh-Duc pulled off a brilliant tackle on Martyn Williams, who claimed the ball once it had sailed over the intended target.

Wales have had success at the Stade de France, with victories there in 1999, 2001 and 2005, but they came at a time when France accepted the invitation to join a rather relaxed party. All the games were riots of invention and error.

This was different, a return to the days of 30 years ago when this single fixture determined who would win the overall championship. This was anything but relaxed, and yet it still had a sparkle to it — the reinvigoration of Imanol Harinordoquy and Tom Shanklin, for example — and a wit that set it apart from the other two games.

The outstanding Welsh player was lucky to be spared a trip to the bin for his first-half challenge on the outstanding Frenchman, but perhaps there is a point here. If the tone is set early on, with the emphasis clearly on positive intent, the referee — here Mark Lawrence — is going to be more reluctant to spoil it than if all he sees before him is, well, Ireland-England.

Phil Vickery and Danny Care were shown yellow as much for what had been going on the entire night as for what they did in their own moments of misbehaviour. Although both offences would have stretched a ref's patience in any circumstances, any benefit of the doubt was long perished.

England are not far from being a good union side. It's just that if they were a rugby league team — and how hard they try to play with 13 men — they would all have been sacked by now for failing to see an overlap. Time after time they worked themselves a five on four, three on two, two on one, and they blew every single one.

Sometimes you just have to be able to prise the blinkers apart and go: straighten, draw, give. Not a single cut-out pass is required. Even if the inside players passed it too early, at least Paul Sackey and Mark Cueto would have some notion of being part of the action. And the referee would feel that maybe he'd do his bit to keep the 15-a-side game going.

The one player who may be forgiven for wasting his chance is Mathew Tait. Brand new on the field, hamstrings still a little taut, he suddenly finds himself in open space, with Flutey outside him, Rob Kearney in front of him, and with just a split second to ... get it wrong.

Another player came off the bench and did exactly the same. Gavin Henson. But such is the perception of him in the outside world that the chances of the Welsh player being forgiven are zero. So, in the interests of fairness, Tait must be rapped too, although it will be interesting to see if they both gain a place in their respective countries' starting line-ups next time. It could be time to give both Wales and England a little shake-up for the closing chapters of the Six Nations.

I apologise if I appear oversensitive to tone and reaction here, but there was something about Ireland at the weekend. It was almost a given in Dublin that England would be beaten. Scotland would be tricky because they always are for the Irish at Murrayfield, but with that out of the way, the only hurdle before a first grand slam in 51 years would be Wales away. And Wales at the Millennium hardly counts as an obstacle.

I had the distinct impression that Ireland do not rate Wales. Is it something born of Magners League familiarity? Or is it that a certain inter-Celtic tetchiness has developed of late. Wales-Ireland may have its own ref-testing tension.

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