France holds no fears for Leinster's Luke McGrath

Two minutes to go, four points to the good and the noise of over 51,000 people ringing in your ears.

Niall Scannell had just taken Ireland to the outskirts of the opposition 22 and the ruck that formed around him was solid. The safe call for Luke McGrath at that stage of the Ireland-England game last month was to spoon a simple pop pass to the closest forward.

The scrum-half had been on the field just two minutes. His total Test experience up to that point had been 14 minutes banked against Canada last November. Every coach in the world would have advised him to keep it simple, to ease himself into the game.