How French media reacted: Sometimes you fall onto the nettles, not the mattress

'In a match of insane intensity, Les Bleus exhausted themselves by trying to play too hard'

RESISTANCE: France's petit general Antoine Dupont holds up Mack Hansen close to the try line.

If France’s 14-match winning streak had to end - as it inevitably did - it was right that it should end at the home of the world’s number-one side in a match for the ages. That was the consensus from French journalists after Ireland won a modern epic 32-19 at the Aviva.

Midi Olympique’s “The king of the world is Irish” headline was no mere statement. It was - after Friday's preview edition had splashed with the legend, “Two kings for one world” - an honourable surrender, an admission that, after a week of hype, France came up short in Dublin.