Improve or we're doomed
That's the situation France and Ireland find themselves in after the first round of the 2006 RBS Six Nations Championship ahead of this afternoon's clash at the Stade de France.
The French wielded the axe after Murrayfield and a hapless display against Scotland. Bernard Laporte had to be seen to take some sort of positive action after that shock defeat. His Irish counterpart, Eddie O'Sullivan, derived some solace from the win over Italy and left well enough alone until Thursday when Marcus Horan's illness led to the recall for his 47th cap of Reggie Corrigan.
O'Sullivan put as brave a face on things as he possibly could at yesterday's press conference in the team's Arc de Triomphe Hilton Hotel. On the surface, he didn't seem to be feeling any pressure but deep down he must be fearing a ferocious French backlash and the "obliteration" his captain Brian O'Driscoll spoke of if they don't show vast improvement on seven days ago.
And if that scenario comes to pass - familiar dark murmurings may begin in the corridors of power at 62 Lansdowne Road.
Simply, the Irish team cannot be allowed to continue to play like they did in the three November internationals and again last week. If they do, we'll be very much back to the bad old days of the 1990s when we were embarrassed on a regular basis, not least by the French when on home soil.
Nobody is suggesting that O'Sullivan isn't a good and dedicated coach but his style is tending to turn off even those who were once his greatest supporters.
Is this a happy Irish team? They'll put a brave face on it in public but what they're saying among themselves and when the tape recorders have been switched off tells a different story.
Nor is O'Sullivan helped today by Marcus Horan's absence. The one area where Eddie least needed a casualty was on either side of the front-row given the absence of suitable cover for John Hayes, today making his 58th and record appearance as a prop for his country, and Horan.
Hayes has reached the age that he would seriously benefit from a breather entering the final quarter of a game but instead he has to battle on week in, week out, simply because there's no suitable alternative.
It's now much the same story at loose head. So O'Sullivan had to recall the 35-year-old Corrigan who presumably will play the first fifty minutes or so before being replaced by Simon Best. Given that the Ulsterman is more at home on the other side of the scrum, you can only imagine Pieter de Villiers relishing the prospect.
"Reggie had been starting at loose head until the autumn and we see him as the number two loose head in the squad," said O'Sullivan. "Simon was on the bench based on his capacity to play on either side of the scrum. I remember saying when announcing the squad at the start of the championship that a lot of more experienced players hadn't made what was a form selection. But I was confident that if we needed any of these guys, they'd come straight in to the front line. In the same way that Anthony Foley would have started at number eight had Denis Leamy not been available, that's the kind of head set I'm wearing."
There was a strong case for the recall of Foley who, interestingly enough, is 32, the same age as the London based French pair Olivier Magne and Richard Ibanez. It's a sign of the times, when Magne is the only London Irish player in either side and indeed you have to go back to Kieron Dawson in 2000 as the most recent member of the "Exiles" to pull on the Irish jersey.
Les Bleus may have one eye on the World Cup to be played in their own country in 2007 but that doesn't mean they have forgotten the present.
The outcome of the game will probably be decided by which French team turns up. If it's the one humbled by Scotland, it would give Ireland a reasonable chance of repeating the 2000 win at the same venue; if it's one that plays with the forward passion and amazing flair of so many sides of the past, God alone knows the kind of trouble Ireland will find themselves in.
It's certainly a point not lost on the Irish coach.
"It's notable that they have brought back some of the old guard so it's a case of circling the wagons after a surprise upset," he rationalised.
"In terms of how that pans out for us, I think we'll probably get the full Monty. It's a big game for them now and might define their championship."
In a possible attempt to take some of the heat off O'Sullivan, skipper Brian O'Driscoll admitted that: "there's only so much Eddie and the coaching staff can do. The result and the performance are down to the 15 who take the pitch. You have to stick your hand up and take a lot of the responsibility as a player. We've got a big opportunity to go out and do that."
He dismissed the suggestion that the team was due a good performance and stressed: "I don't think you can just expect to be due a good performance. You've got to go out and make it happen. You don't just appear at the Stade de France and expect to play well against the French. It doesn't happen that way."
Hopefully O'Driscoll or some of his colleagues can rediscover the magic of the Stade de France 2000 and somehow eke out an Irish win.
Realistically, though, we may have to settle for a decent performance and after the November internationals and Italy last week, that would be no bad thing.
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