Jared Payne is enjoying centre stage

No fuss, no fanfare.

There Jared Payne was last Sunday, four months on from the fractured foot that cut short his World Cup, going about his business against Wales at the Aviva Stadium. Eleven tackles here, a handful of half-breaks there, and a presence that can’t be calculated.

Scroll back to the early days of that World Cup and you may remember the Ulster man’s worth being questioned and Joe Schmidt going out to bat for him. Watching Payne orchestrate Ireland’s defence on Sunday was to understand why.

It wasn’t the sort of stuff that makes headlines. The theory goes Payne is more likely to generate those from full-back where many would claim he can be best used, but there was comfort in seeing him paired in midfield beside Robbie Henshaw again.

The understanding between the pair is not one to be lightly dissolved.

“Yeah, I talk to him a bit easier than I talk to the missus,” Payne joked. “It’s all good. We shook hands before the game and reintroduced ourselves to each other and got on with it. It was good. He played a stormer.

“Some of the carries and collisions … he and Jamie Roberts seemed to be going at it hammer and tongs. I thought he stood up and it’s almost like riding a bike: it didn’t feel like we’ve been apart for too long. It’s a good relationship.”

France will likely offer a different threat up the middle. Mathieu Bastareaud has fallen foul of new coach Guy Noves’ desire to return to old values of flair over modern physicality and that cleared the way for Stade Francais centre Jonathan Danty to make his Test debut against Italy last weekend.

“He’s a great player,” said Payne. “He might look a bit shorter, but he looks pretty strong. He’s going to be very tough to contain. They’ve got some pretty talented backs right across the board, him in the midfield with (Gael) Fickou and then some pretty classy operators on the outside.”

New regime maybe, but some of the old problems stymied France. The lack of structure in their play was obvious, but the willingness to at least play the ball through the hands, seek offloads and release the likes of Virimi Vakatawa out wide spell danger.

“You have to be a bit more alert around the tackle, you can’t just hit the tackle, make the tackle and then switch off. If you’re in and around that area you have to watch the threats coming, flooding that (midfield) channel and if they do have some runners you’ve got to be ready to put them down. That’s probably the main difference.”

Imperfect though it was, that defeat of Italy does at least give France some momentum ahead of Ireland’s visit this weekend. The visitors, too, could be said to have more bounce in their step given the stalemate against Wales released the pressure that had been building around the team.

Payne sees it differently.

“We didn’t feel like our backs were against the wall. We were confident with the team we had. It’s a funny one, a draw. You can’t be too happy, but you can’t be too disappointed at the same time. There wasn’t any huge sense of relief, almost a sense of maybe letting down our support, I guess.”