Heads must rule hearts if Irish want to join heroes

So back we go to Stade de France, where the pitch has thawed since that icy debacle of three weekends ago and the intrigue surrounding this RBS 6 Nations clash tomorrow between France and Ireland (3pm, Irish time) has increased considerably.

It is easy to speculate that had Ireland actually kicked off against the French in the cold night air of February 11 then they would have been dispatched with all the blood-curdling efficiency of an over-enthusiastic revolutionary on a deadline at the guillotine.

You get the picture. In the wake of a narrow defeat to Wales and having been unsettled by the citing, albeit unsuccessful, of Stephen Ferris that followed it, Declan Kidney’s side would have pitched up in Paris just six days later and been sacrificed at the altar of French running rugby.