EDDIE O’SULLIVAN’S neck — not to mention his job — is not necessarily on the line at the Stade de France tonight. But his stature as Ireland’s most successful coach will take a battering if his team fails to hugely improve on recent performances, all the more so should the gamble of pairing the untried Eoin Reddan with an out of sorts Ronan O’Gara at half-back prove a failure.

FRANCE were in a different class at Lansdowne Road on Saturday and Ireland were lucky their opponents still haven’t learned to play flat-out for 80 minutes. Otherwise it could have been very embarrassing.