‘Agony to ecstasy in about 10 seconds’

Cian Healy could not watch and Mike Ross had his head in his hands as Ireland hung on for the victory that gave them their first medals in Test rugby.

Their shifts already completed at Stade de France, the props had done more than their fair share at the coalface of the scrum to quell a determined French pack looking for redemption after a torrid Six Nations championship.

Yet watching from the sidelines as their replacements tried to finish the job in a cauldron of a stadium, neither of them could bear the tension of those closing, nail-biting passages of play.