'French rugby's Belle Epoque is only just beginning'

Half an hour played in Paris and things are a little testy.

France's discipline is rank. They've had two men in the bin. Peato Mauvaka somehow escapes a full red for a diving headbutt on Ben White. And Darcy Graham has just scored.

It's 13-10 to the championship-chasers, but it's stressed.

The stadium cameras pick out Antoine Dupont in the crowd and the place erupts. To these people, it's like an apparition. God is with us, so have faith.

Apart from the cacophony that greeted the tries that came in a dominant second half, the roars for Dupont - in that moment of need and again later as he lifted the trophy with the stand-in captain Gregory Alldritt - were the loudest of the night.

And what a night. What an era they might be entering. As the fireworks crackled, the tinsel fell and the lap of honour snaked around the vast stadium, it felt like the beginning of something.

'French threaten to rewrite history books'

To say that French rugby is in rude order is putting it mildly.

First, a moment of reflection. Saturday was not the time or the place to ponder what might have been for this team - not when everybody was losing their mind at the joy of it all - but the realisation will dawn at some point that this should have been a Grand Slam season for Les Bleus.

That one inexplicable blip at Twickenham will confound experts for the rest of time.

One of the great wings of his generation (Damian Penaud) and arguably the greatest player ever (Dupont) both fumbled glorious chances to score. It's as surreal now as it was in real time.

Nearly everything else France have done this season has had world class written all over it.

The 43-0 drubbing of Wales on opening night was a record home win over the visitors. It was the first time they'd 'nilled' the Welsh in the championship in more than a quarter of a century.

The 73 points they put on Italy was the second highest total in a match in the history of the competition.

The trip to Dublin, billed as the clash of the heavyweights, turned into a one-sided romp. With awesome power and gorgeous subtlety, France put in one of the greatest away Six Nations performances that anybody can remember.

It was Ireland's biggest defeat at home in 12 years and France's total of 42 points was the most they'd scored in that fixture on Irish soil.

Game by game, they threatened to rewrite the record books. Before Saturday, there were potential milestones at every turn.

They needed four tries to get to 30 for the tournament, thereby breaking a mark set by England 24 years ago.

They duly broke that record just after the hour when Louis Bielle-Biarrey and Gael Fickou set up Yoram Moefana for a clinical score that showed France at their best.

Bielle-Biarrey already had a slice of history with an all-time high of 11 try involvements but he was looking for more. Another score would have taken him to eight for the championship - a record for the Six Nations. He delivered. Again.

His try early in the second half, a breakaway thing sparked by Ntamack, was crucial as it set France on their way. He now joins England's Cyril Lowe and Scotland's Ian Smith in a holy trinity who have scored eight championship tries in a single season.

Given that those two gentlemen did their thing in 1914 and 1925, you get a sense of the scale of what the young Bordeaux wizard has been doing.

Others turned up with collective glory and individual immortality in mind.

Before kick-off, Penaud was level with Serge Blanco as France's most prolific try-scorer. One more and he was out on his own, a new record of 39 tries in his 56th appearance. It took Blanco 93 games to get the mountain top in the first place.

Penaud will have to wait for another day, but Thomas Ramos overtook Frederic Michalak's record of 436 points for his country. Another history man.

'England improving, Ireland regressing, but France steaming ahead'

In their clear blue sky, the one cloud is the lack of a Slam, but given where French rugby is right now you wonder how much longer they'll be waiting. Prediction: not very long at all.

French clubs have won the last four Champions Cup and three of the past four Challenge Cups. It would be the least surprising thing in global rugby if that trend continued in a few months.

Toulouse, the reigning champions, have already beaten Ulster 61-21, Exeter 64-21 and Leicester 80-12. Bordeaux, the fiercely impressive contenders, have put 69 points on Exeter and 66 points on the Sharks. They're a pair of behemoths.

England are improving, Ireland regressing, but France are steaming ahead. On Friday they won the Under-20 Six Nations for the first time since 2018.

Though still kids, 18 of the 23 that beat Scotland have played for their clubs this season. Toulouse, Bordeaux, Toulon, La Rochelle - all the biggest French guns have given game time to their youth. They start them early here.

Their under-age system has seen them win three of the past four Junior World Cups and they were beaten in the final of the other. One of the scariest things for everybody else is the age profile.

Theo Attissogbe - three tries in his two games in the championship - is only 20. Bielle-Biarrey, Oscar Jegou and Hugo Auradou, all involved on Saturday, are 21. Nolann le Garrec, who was Maxime Lucu's deputy, is 22. Leo Barre, not in the squad for the denouement but scorer of two tries in his one game, is also 22.

There are other potential superstars waiting in the wings - Marko Gazzotti, the brilliant 20-year-old back-row from Bordeaux; Emilien Gailleton, the outstanding 21-year-old centre from Pau; Nicolas Depoortere, already an important figure in a magnificent Bordeaux backline at the age of 22.

The list isn't endless, but it can feel like it at times.

As they whooped and hollered and paraded the trophy around the Stade de France, you got an overwhelming sense that this Belle Epoque in rugby boots is only just getting started.

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