Inside Track: Ireland come out the best in the meeting of the world’s top two

Is this the best-ever Ireland team? If it is, there could be a Grand Slam on the way, and maybe after that, rugby’s most prized possession, the World Cup.

Okay, so there’s no Brian O’Driscoll about, or a Ronan O’Gara, or a Paul O’Connell, or a Rob Kearney. But Jonathon Sexton is still toiling in the green jersey and has around him a well-instructed and talented group of players. And, of course, he’s not too bad himself.

Calling the shots is Andy Farrell, an Englishman with an Irish name and a son, Owen, who sits in the other corner, wearing the Red Rose when Ireland come face to face with the auld enemy.

It may have been asked here before: If ever the two lads sit around the breakfast table or go for a pint, what’s the craic like? Does son tell the dad what’s happening on the training ground, or does dad tell son what to expect on the coming Saturday or Sunday?

The guess is they sing dumb, and if they open their mouths, it’s only to ask whose round it is, or will you pour me another cup of tea. The probability is they avoid each other, only meeting up for family deaths, births or marriages.

All of that aside, it was a good watch at The Aviva on Saturday. Ireland, ranked the world’s best, dismissing the challenge of the title-holders and second in the global pecking order, with, in the end, some ease and just a little luck.

The jury might have decided in favour of Ireland in the issue over the James Lowe try, but it’s not for sure they got it right. Still, it wasn’t a game-changing score.

It was close and tremendously exciting, even frenetic, in a high-scoring first half, which ended with Ireland in front; but it was mostly one-way traffic after that. France never really looked like making up the deficit, while Ireland, much changed from the start, gave meaning to the age-old phrase, ‘a team’s strength is in its subs’.

Italy are next up, the game taking place in Rome on Sunday week. Then there’s Scotland, on March 12, this another away fixture. And then – roll of drums – a clash that could decide the issue. England come to Dublin close enough to St Patrick’s Day, March 18, to make The Aviva the place all revellers in town for the 3-day festival will want to be.

Serious talk about what follows in France later in the year can wait until the continental issue is resolved.