TV View: It's on nights like these that Bill O'Herlihy nearly has to be hosed down. The magnitude of it all leaves him atremble. But this, of course, wasn't just any auld crunch match, this was Le Crunch, if you excuse our French.

"The day of reckoning has finally arrived," he said, "Ireland expects."

But when Billo showed us the French line-up, for one moment what Ireland might have expected was a drubbing of tres grand proportions. But then there was the realisation that if you took Zinedine Zidane, Thierry Henry, Patrick Vieira, Claude Makelele, Lilian Thuram and William Gallas out of that team it really was quite average.

And that was the gist of the panel's message: take them out and you'll be home and hosed.

Not in an unpleasantly aggressive manner, mind, just in a "welcome to Lansdowne Road, garlic face" sort of way.

"We have to be totally committed and nasty, we have to get in around the French," said Liam Brady. Johnny Giles looked shocked. Brady advocating nastiness on the pitch? What next? Over Billo's shoulder the ground was filling nicely. He was sensing Lansdowne would roar like never before. He asked Gilesie about the importance of the crowd to the team. Gilesie is often asked this kind of question and we're never convinced he believes that the crowd has a damn thing to do with it. But he played along, telling Billo "If we played in empty stadiums there'd be no atmosphere in the ground." True enough.

Richard Dunne in, Andy O'Brien out. Brady shrugged when Billo asked for his thought on the wisdom of this decision.

"Dunne, Breen, O'Brien, it's much of a muchness," he said, lavishing Ireland's selection of centre halves with praise.

Time for a vox pop. RTÉ found a man leaving a pub and asked him for his big-match prediction. "I think Norn Iron's gonna beat England," he said. God love us. Drink, eh?

Over to Sky Sports. "This group is tighter than cramp," noted Jason McAteer, celebrating the fourth anniversary of that goal against Holland. Andy Reid in? "Well, right of midfield has been a problem position since I left," he grinned, "I'm waiting for a phone call."

National anthems time. Lansdowne's roof would have been lifted, if it had a roof. The game? Well. Gilesie?

"The French are no great shakes. At. All. I'm worried. Kevin Kilbane hasn't kicked a ball in 45 minutes," he said, somewhat unimpressed with the midfielder's contribution. "I'm less optimistic about us taking something now."

Brady raised the spirits. "We've given a very good account of ourselves, I think it'll be 0-0, which would be a good result."

Dunphy, sitting on the right, was somewhere in between the two, if you know what we mean.

Second half. Right, this is where the recriminations start - 53rd minute: Thierry Henry makes a bags of a pass. "I'm always reluctant to criticise somebody of Henry's stature and ability," said Jim Beglin, "because he's likely to make you eat your words, but . . ." Jim! Stop! Now! ". . . but, he's not having a good night tonight."

Just as we knew Romania would beat England all those years ago when Kevin Keegan said "there's only one winner in this game now, and it's England", well, we had a bad feeling.

Fourteen minutes later. "I must admit, that's sheer class," said Jim, after Henry capped a not-good-night with a goal.

Jim's words were a bit indigestible, not the tastiest, but c'est la vie, if you order it you have to eat it.