This was a breathtaking finish for the Six Nations and a very upbeat ending for France. We had the hardest fixture list of all the teams, with only Scotland and Wales visiting Paris, but apart from one poor half against England the tournament should provide a very good foundation for us as we go towards the World Cup.
Saturday evening ended in a scenario worthy of Hollywood. Yes, France did know in advance what they had to do but we also showed that we know how to manage a match. After that early Scotland try we built our game patiently, we remained very controlled but stepped on the gas when we needed to. The forwards did the softening up and then Pierre Mignoni and Yannick Jauzion supplied the extra pace.
This Six Nations win showed that France have the reserves we need for the World Cup. We now have new options thanks to the way players such as Mignoni, David Skrela, Sébastien Chabal and Lionel Beauxis have performed, and although we can't be complacent we can also claim to have gained the psychological advantage over Ireland, who will be our opponents in the pool stages.
Ireland had the easiest fixture list on paper and produced a really complete match on Saturday against Italy, who were simply blown away. The Irish put a lot of speed into their game, they managed two big matches against England and the Italians, but 20 minutes in the first half against France and a mere five minutes in the second half cost them dearly. On the plus side they can look at the increasingly important contribution of Gordon D'Arcy, but the big question remains how they fill the gap left by Brian O'Driscoll if he is injured.
Italy were the big revelation, confirming what I have felt was building up there over the past few years, but I'm still not sure they have the reserves to go far in the World Cup. As we saw on Saturday, they are vulnerable if they cannot field a first-choice team.
England had a useful tournament, with new players, fresh hope, fresh minds and the revelation of the past few weeks in David Strettle. I'm not sure how it looks for this World Cup but they will be back among the world's top nations in 2011 if they can hang on to the attitude they have shown in the past two weeks.
The disappointments were Scotland and Wales, although Wales have another revelation in young James Hook and they remain a delight to watch at times. Scotland were simply inconsistent; I believe they are capable of better things because they ran Ireland close, doing enough to win, and they showed good spirit on Saturday.
Across the board, I was struck by the ambition all the sides are showing in their approach to the attacking game. Compared with Six Nations tournaments of only a few years ago, some sides seem transformed. We have seen teams willing to take risks, an attitude epitomised by the sight of England with their backs to the wall against France but still believing that the best form of defence was attack. The result was Saturday's high try count.
There was another pointer towards the World Cup: the players remained the most important element but no one should underestimate the influence refereeing can have on the outcome of a match. The standard was high overall, and in my view the two key decisions on Saturday were correct, but they showed that the system of video refereeing has its limits.
The most controversial decision, of course, had been when Chris White ended Italy's match against Wales without permitting the Welsh to complete that penalty. I don't think it was White's fault but a mistake by the television match official. However, White then made the error of failing to adapt the rule to the circumstances.
In the context of the World Cup, then, all the nations in the European elite have made progress in the past few weeks but we are all a good few metres from the summit of the All Black mountain. It's all very well coming out on top in our own backyards this spring but it will take a lot of work this summer for the Europeans to get near the New Zealanders by the autumn.
