Jonathan Davies: Dublin dogfight delivers England a fierce warning

Ireland's narrow win over France in Dublin was a dogfight that rarely reached any high skill levels, but what a great Six Nations contest it turned out to be in difficult weather conditions. Their 15-12 win now sets up a Grand Slam finale with England but this was not a performance that provides any clues about the outcome of that.

Winning was the only consideration yesterday and it was sheer guts and gallantry that gave the Irish victory. Their man of the match, David Humphreys, might have given them a more comfortable margin, but he hit the post with a late penalty and thereby upset everyone who had bet Ireland minus three points.

I must say that if I was French I would not be happy at the way they were beaten. They created some excellent situations and the game was there for them to win, but handling errors at crucial times let them down. A match that was very aggressive and dominated by some magnificent defence was always going to be settled by the boot and François Gelez's misses proved how important it is for your kicker to be on form. There never seems to be any danger about that with Humphreys, who dictated play with his boot.

There was more kicking than I like to see but the conditions tended to encourage that tactic. I have rarely seen so many kicks charged down either and the weather was also responsible for that because players were trying to kick the ball low and there were easy pickings for the chargers.

Ireland were given the boost of an encouraging start when Geordan Murphy popped over that drop goal after one minute. It was a piece of smart thinking to realise that even at that early stage it was vital to get points on the board.

As a matter of fact, it was probably the only decisive piece of action in the first 10 minutes, which were full of nervous play from both sides. This revealed how high the stakes were and how slowly they became accustomed to a wind that seemed to be blowing diagonally one minute and then from another direction the next.

At this stage the French maul appeared to be the most efficient unit on the field and it created opening after opening for them. But one tackle by Murphy on Olivier Magne near the line was typical of the Irish resistance. One long period of French aggression was broken by a break-away five yards from the Irish line which, unfortunately, fell to second-row Malcolm O'Kelly whose legs reached the treacle before he could do any damage.

The French would have been disappointed that they didn't get a try in the first half and that, plus two misses by Gelez, sent them in for the interval 12-3 down and more than a little disheartened.

The second half saw a real ding-dong that brought the best of Ireland's battling hearts and although Gelez scored three penalties, Humphreys got the one that kept their noses in front.

I believe that England are still the Grand Slam favourites but they have to go to Lansdowne Road and the French will tell them how hard that is for any team.