By Cathal Dervan

IRELAND’S players had to sit and watch in the luxury of their five star Rome hotel as France secured the Six Nations title in heartbreaking fashion with a last minute video try on Saturday night.

The Irish team were already back at their base on the Via Veneto when Elvis Vermeulen scored the try that won the title on points differential and all thanks to the assistance of video ref Simon McDowell from Ulster!

Their huge win over Italy earlier in the day wasn’t enough to win the championship, and the Irish players were left to rue the try they conceded in the last minute as France pipped them to the crown by just four points scored.

“It’s hard to take, but that’s sport,” said Ireland coach Eddie O’Sullivan as he watched the celebrations unfold in Paris.

“We could wallow in self-pity now but I don’t think that would be the right thing to do. We’ve won four out of five matches, played some great rugby and scored some great tries. We have to kick on from here.”

France were at a clear advantage on Saturday as they kicked off two hours after Ireland and knew exactly what they had to do in Paris, but O’Sullivan refused to use excuses.

“It was a tough day. We entered our match knowing we had to win and hopefully by enough to win the championship,” said the Ireland coach.

“The only thing is we didn’t know how much we had to win by. We just kept kicking on in the game and putting as much points on the board as we could. France did have a slight advantage in that they knew what they had to do to win the championship.

“That’s the way the cookie crumbles. I thought Scotland were going to do us a favor there, but it wasn’t to be because France scored right at the death.”

“Had France won by 40 points it would be a lot easier to swallow. It was great drama though.”

As for the legality of the controversial late French try O’Sullivan added, “It was a tough call for the video official but that’s their job, to make these decisions. It certainly added a bit of drama to it.”

Ireland captain Brian O’Driscoll added, “I watched the France game in my room. I got back to the hotel in time and got changed watching the game. I felt very helpless like everybody else.

“I thought Scotland had done us a favor. The wait to see if the try had been given was excruciating. The call could have gone either way but went against Scotland and us too. I didn’t know which way the call was going to go.”

Ireland’s under-20s lifted the gloom surrounding the Six Nations when they came back from the dead to beat Italy 36-25 in Benevento and secure an unprecedented Grand Slam and Six Nations championship double.