Sure, Mark Twain may come across all cutesy as in it's not the size of the dog in the fight, it is the size of the fight in the dog.And while Andy Farrell's Ireland have long prided themselves in the spirit of their own beehive, their own buzz, their ability to work for each other in the wider group, to cover up short-comings.This resilience and fortitude, belief in each other, came up short as they ran into box canyon traps laid on for them on Saturday.Hell, long before that term was even coined and made familiar in Hollywood westerns, the French had their own word, cul-de-sac.Size? Size doesn't mightn't matter if you are talking of fiction, knitting or puppies. READ MORE: Ireland vs France: Ireland player ratings as their Grand Slam dreams die at the Aviva READ MORE: Conor Murray shares special moment with baby son and wife Joanna Cooper after final Ireland game in Dublin But if you are talking about the oval ball, fifteen-a-side game, Rugby Union, French understanding that bigger is better, taking lessons that can be gleaned from an under-13 game, is to the front of their thinking. Get the big guys on the pitch. Consider this: a revved up Ireland tore into France from the kick-off, dominated territory and possession from the get-go and had the home support almost frenzied as they looked for a breakthrough.But after 20 minutes of this press, and in one of the most telling Six Nations stats for a long time, France had made 83 tackles (missing five) to Ireland's 12 (somewhat oddly missing four). Francois Cros, the blue no6, had made 10 of those - exceptional.For Ireland's part Caelan Doris, leader, warrior, back from injury and looking rightly fired, had made 10 carries, even being held up over the line at one point, but the scoreboard was still stuck at 0-0. Ireland even headed the penalty count 4-1 to there.However, at this point France mounted a breakout and Joe McCarthy, chasing back, grabbed a French jersey well out of sight of the referee but not, of course, of the TMO and he was yellow carded.The 23 year-old is the biggest Irish player, six-foot-six and 120kgs - the same as Flament and Guillard opposite him but smaller than Meafou on the bench and his side's 'extra'.He is ballast-needed to allow Ireland use the light-by-Test standards Tadhg Beirne, six-three and 110kgs, in the second-row. McCarthy leaving the fray was calamitous for the side, his weight, heft and presence was a big loss.France won the lineout gained from the yellow card penalty, mauled across the pitch from where Antoine Dupont fired a long pass and, with the extra man free on the left wing, Louis Bielle-Biarrey scored. Size had mattered.Thomas Ramos missed the conversion so when Sam Prendergast landed a 33rd minute penalty, hope was restored, 3-5; only for Ireland to be penalised for blocking the kick-off chasers, the kind of careless, mental aberration that would have driven Joe Schmidt incandescent, 3-8.Still, from here Ireland had their best spell, Prendergast landing a penalty from the half-way line on the break. Followed by Beirne winning a lineout in the right-hand corner and Dan Sheehan scoring from the resulting maul putting Ireland 13-8 up and, with Antoine Dupont having left the field injured, the home side had the lead.Lots of things happened next: France broke through on the left, Calvin Nash collided with a Frenchman, the move continued right, Peter O'Mahony was cleared out of a ruck, Paul Boudehent scored.Firstly, the referee came back to review Nash's tackle, deemed it was high and produced a yellow-card; he then had the TMO review the clearout on O'Mahony and judged O'Mahony had been in the ruck but had stepped back to try and 'milk' a penalty and he awarded the try.Simon Easterby was furious on both counts and hence furious about the try. Twitter/X was furious because the French broadcast director stayed with replays, the ref and his explanations as opposed to showing O'Mahony walking off the field to a big ovation (each to his own, I suppose).The program director wasn't overly bothered about showing the five French forwards coming on at this point either - and they were not just going to be big and fresh but they were going to be cohesive too; all five play for Toulouse.Easterby, now 13-15 behind and down to 14 men, countered with Ryan Baird and Jack Conan for O'Mahony and van der Flier, weight for guile, while 10 minutes later putting in James Ryan for McCarthy rather than Beirne was more or less like for like.Either way, France's new weight was about to be thrown about to considerable effect as a Bielle-Biarrey try (51st minute), two Ramos penalties (51st & 60th) and an Oscar Jegou (58th) try put them out to an unassailable 35-13 lead.A late flurry saw Cros yellow carded in the 75th minute, Prendergast have a pass intercepted that saw Damian Penaud score 97 metres away at the other end while Jack Conan and Cian Healy would also score before the close, 27-42 looking a lot better than 13-42."You'll always reflect on moments in the game which gave them that momentum," said Easterby afterwards."Maybe in certain times in the game we were on the attack and we got turned over or we weren't quite accurate enough and, then, we also need to be better at stopping and saying it's about taking advantage of those moments."It didn't help that we were down to 14 men. I think they kind of kicked on a little bit in that period when Calvin was off and I'll go on record in saying I don't, and still don't, believe it was necessarily a yellow card."He was very passive in it and it was just one of the things."Ireland were down to 14 men twice in the 80 minutes, lost the McCarthy sin-bin 0-7 and Nash's 0-10 although, curiously, there was a try on either side, his going off and coming back on. "We have to be better when we're down to 14 men. Shit happens. You get to go down one man, you might go down two men but we can't let that be the reason why we concede those points. We need to make sure we're better at that."I don't think you ever go through your career without having a few lows and disappointments and I know that the players will bounce back. They'll be disappointed with what's gone on today but they will want to finish strong."Whether Ireland can afford to concede weight, for instance using a converted back-row in the second-row, against a team set-up the way France (or indeed South Africa) are, added to their propensity to used a seven-one bench, will come under scrutiny from herein. Added Easterby of this trend to big, big, bigger: “No, I don't think we go 7-1, no, but I don't think that was the reason why we didn’t win."It's just they get a good chunk of forwards coming off the bench. We did as well, to be fair, but I don't think that size made a big difference.“I don’t know, I guess you’ve got to have the personnel. Yeah, it's a risk. Although Dupont went off reasonably early.“There's a risk-reward isn't there but whatever you do, there's an advantage and a disadvantage. It's just whether you take the advantage when you've got it or not.”“I guess part of winning collisions isn't just about the size of people, it's about understanding how guys around the ball player can affect that as well. So that was part of our challenge.”IRELAND: Hugo Keenan; Jamie Osborne, Robbie Henshaw, Bundee Aki, James Lowe; Sam Prendergast, Jamison Gibson-Park; Andrew Porter, Dan Sheehan, Finlay Bealham; Joe McCarthy, Tadhg Beirne; Peter O’Mahony, Josh van der Flier, Caelan Doris (capt).Replacements: Rob Herring for Sheehan 68, Cian Healy for Porter 68, Thomas Clarkson for Bealham 59, James Ryan for McCarthy 57, Jack Conan for van der Flier 49-64, Ryan Baird for O'Mahony 49, Conor Murray for Gibson-Park 68, Jack Crowley for Aki 55.FRANCE: Ramos; Penaud, Barassi, Moefana, Bielle-Biarrey; Ntamack, Dupont (capt); Gros, Mauvaka, Atonio; Flament, Guillard; Cros, Boudehent, Alldritt.Replacements: Marchand for Mauvaka 49, Baille for Gros 49, Aldegheri for Atonio 49, Meafou for Guillard 49, Auradou for Flament 76, Jegou for Barassi 47, Jelonch for Alldritt 49, Lucu for Dupont 28. 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