O'Driscoll went off late in the game because of a tight hamstring

"I don't think France did that much except pick up the scraps that we gave them," said O'Sullivan.

"The players did not go out to make those mistakes but you do not expect that many in one game."

O'Sullivan said Brian O'Driscoll was forced off late in the game because of a tight hamstring while Paul O'Connell also picked up an elbow injury.

Match statistics

The Irish coach said his team had given away "stupid tries" in the first half.

"For the first try, Tommy Bowe slipped coming into the defensive line which was just one of those things.

"For the other tries, we had an intercept, a block down and a spilled ball. Those are things that are schoolboy errors.

"We addressed the errors at half-time but we still made a silly mistake at the start of the second half for their sixth try.

Report: France 43-31 Ireland

"After that, we just stopped making silly errors, held on to the ball, ran at the French and took them through the phases."

O'Sullivan said that the Irish management had taken the decision to withdraw captain O'Driscoll three minutes from time.

"Brian is pretty exhausted. He wanted to stay on but his hamstring had tightened up and we thought it was best to take him off. He did a lot of work out there.

"Paul O'Connell shipped a nasty knock on his shoulder but the type of guy he is, he fought on until the end."