O'Driscoll: French were awesome

BBC Sport Online columnist Brian O'Driscoll is still shell-shocked after Saturday's Six Nations hammering in Paris

We were certainly put in our place in Paris.

Most of the boys are still shell-shocked after that defeat, even a day after the match.

France were absolutely awesome, and I'll have to watch the video to see how they dissected us so easily, and how it all went wrong.

It is just a tad different from the last time I was at the Stade de France when I scored a hat-trick.

But there is no doubt we caught France on a very good day.

With the sun at their backs, and the confidence that they have running through the side, they could destroy any team.

A very good team caught us on a very poor day

Brian O'Driscoll

They have some really good players. Although they were very strong all-round, I thought Serge Betson on the flank was outstanding.

He seemed to be everywhere. In the end I thought there was two of him on the pitch.

Skipper Fabien Galthie was again a dominating force. He controlled the game, and always kept us on our toes.

They had great width to their game, and were very, very quick to strike.

Their discipline was also very impressive.

You only have to look at how many shots at goal we had, to see that this present team have learned a lot about self-control under Bernard Laporte.

Serge Betson had a magnificent game

To keep us down to one try was very impressive, even when we got into some sort of a rhythm midway through the second half.

All I can say is that a very good team caught us on a very poor day.

I don't think the fact that we have played 10 hard games this season had anything to do with it.

Without a shadow of doubt, France were worthy Grand Slam winners.

To win all five games is very difficult, but they achieved that, and built up a momentum as they went along.

It proves what a really good outfit they are, and they can only get better which is a bit worrying.

Obviously everyone is saying that we are pretty dismal away from home, and I suppose after the heavy Twickenham defeat as well as the Paris reverse, they have a good point.

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Obviously we have a big challenge ahead of us to rectify that when we head to New Zealand in the summer for two Tests.

Overall it has been a reasonable season for us.

Those two big defeats were very disappointing as we expected to do better.

But we did just miss out on a Grand Slam ourselves in last season's delayed championship when we lost to Scotland in the autumn.

We did beat England at Lansdowne Road which was fantastic, and twice put a lot of points on the board against Wales.

So all-in-all, things were not too bad.

Most of us now have a week off before getting back to training for two remaining inter-provincial games, while Munster must now concentrate on their Heineken Cup semi-final.

But must of us will have an eye on preparing for the summer tour to New Zealand.

Now that will be a test of just how far we have come.