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Eighty minutes have dramatically changed the picture of this season.

The Grand Slam is gone, broken apart once again in round four. And while a third Guinness Six Nations championship is technically still possible for Ireland after Saturday's 42-27 defeat to France, the chances are slim. Third place is arguably more likely than first.

On Thursday, Simon Easterby highlighted the need for control and consistency, after each of the wins against England, Scotland and Wales had featured minor blips, none of which the opposition could fully take advantage of.

On Saturday, Ireland had one of those blips, during which time France ripped them to shreds, scoring 24 points in the space of 11 minutes during the third quarter, as Ireland went from 13-8 in front to 32-13 behind in the blink of an eye.

Playing so much time with 14 players isn't ideal. As we have pointed out consistently for the last year, the trend in Ireland’s discipline has become alarming.

Between the summer of 2021 and through to the World Cup, Ireland picked up just three yellow cards across a span of 27 games. No team in top tier rugby was carded fewer during that period, and no team has been carded more since; with 13 yellow cards and a red in the most recent 15 matches.

Joe McCarthy and Calvin Nash spent time in the sin-bin on Saturday, and in those two 10-minute periods France outscored Ireland a combined 20-0.

Easterby maintains Nash was unlucky to receive a yellow after making head contact with Pierre-Louis Barassi, but he can have absolutely no complaints over the sin-bin received by McCarthy, whose pull-back on Thomas Ramos was the most straightforward yellow card Angus Gardner will hand out in his career.

"We have to be better when we're down to 14 men," the