Ronan O'Gara: The Farrell factor with players is Ireland's point of difference

There is an argument from the Six Nations that everyone left town with something encouraging and maybe France most of all, but they still conceded 96 points in their last two games against Scotland and England

JOY UNCONFINED: Ireland finished the tournament with a flourish with tryscorer Tommy O'Brien taking the acclaim from Ciaran Frawley, Craig Casey and Ronan Kelleher after he score his side's sixth try against Scotland. Pic: Nick Elliott, Inpho

WE watched the Six Nations denouement as a La Rochelle squad on Saturday night, together. One mid-sized room, but if the breadth of emotion therein was a microcosm of the rugby population at large, we have ourselves some ball game. Twenty nine tries were scored on the final day alone, and 111 across the tournament. That’s entertainment.

It didn’t take a diviner to detect that Maro Itoje and England were at it in the Stade de France. I got that same vibe only a couple of months ago when an under-performing Harlequins came to the Stade Deflandre in wretched form. We got a fair haymaker too.