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Major sporting events are often suffocated by the hype, but on Saturday Ireland and France contested <\/span>80 minutes of heart-stopping Test rugby<\/span><\/a> that surpassed all expectations and reaffirmed one team as the world’s best while plunging the other into an unenviable period of soul-searching. <\/span><\/p>\n When this year’s Six Nations fixtures were announced back in April, eyes were immediately drawn to Ireland’s home match with 2022’s Grand Slam winners, and the soaring trajectories of both teams in the months that followed only intensified the sense of anticipation.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n While Ireland bolstered their status as one of rugby’s northern hemisphere superpowers with a Test series win over the All Blacks in New Zealand and autumn defeats of world champions South Africa and Australia, France just kept on winning. <\/span><\/p>\n In fact, Les Bleus rocked up to the Aviva Stadium on Saturday on the back of a 14-game winning run, with Ireland intent on toppling the one side whose scalp had so far eluded them during Andy Farrell’s reign. <\/span><\/p>\n The world’s top two sides. A crackling atmosphere. A championship blockbuster dripping with sub-plot and featuring some of the best players on the planet. <\/span><\/p>\n It was all set up to disappoint, wasn’t it? <\/span><\/p>\n Well, it was, but Ireland and France had other ideas as they swung for each other in a first half so breathless and frenetic that it sealed the match’s place in ‘Greatest Six Nations games’ debates for years to come. <\/span><\/p>\n Watching these two well-oiled machines crash into each other in front of 51,000 spellbound spectators was to cast one’s mind back to the great Arsenal and Manchester United Premier League games of the Wenger and Ferguson eras. It was sporting theatre in its purest form. <\/span><\/p>\n It may also prove the zenith of a rivalry that has in recent years given us <\/span>‘Le Drop’<\/span><\/a> and last year’s noisy <\/span>Stade de France thriller<\/span><\/a>, but rugby fans all over will be hoping for another chapter in Paris in the World Cup later this year.<\/span><\/p>\n While just the prospect of a knockout match in rugby’s quadrennial showpiece is enough to capture the imagination, any sequel to Saturday’s contest will have to conjure moments like Damian Penaud’s glorious counter-attacking score, or James Lowe’s spectacular leap to the corner for Ireland’s second try, to match the original. <\/span><\/p>\n “The first half was [incredible], wasn’t it?,” said Farrell, who has overseen 13 home victories in a row. <\/span><\/p>\n “Wow, it was just end-to-end stuff. We all hoped it would be like that, but it certainly was.”<\/span><\/p>\n While the significance of the result will not be lost on Ireland, who now have Italy, Scotland and England standing between them and a fourth Grand Slam, the voice of Johnny Sexton – who missed the 2021 and 2022 defeats by France – cut through the post-match elation to remind his team-mates of previous false dawns.<\/span><\/p>\n