Well, these things would not be winning if they were not hard to get. And boy was that a hard-fought game.

I have no complaints. The French side were magnificent throughout. They coped well with playing part of the match with a make-shift fly half, and all of the match with a make-shift goal kicker. Their energy and commitment were faultless. Wales also played very well, and in the last 10 minutes of the match I counted four line-outs inside the French red zone. Any one of those could have resulted in a match-winning try. As it was, we lost by 5 points, and the Grand Slam dream is over for another year.

The championship, on the other hand, is still wide open. Every team except Ireland has now lost a game, but they still have to play England and Wales, each of which have lost only once. England still have to play France. There is still everything to play for, and if the rest of the championship produces games that are as bruising as this one we’ll be in for a lot of entertainment.