PARIS -- Devin Toner maintained Ireland were not tempted to react to France's rough treatment of Jonny Sexton during their 10-9 RBS Six Nations defeat in Paris and refused to look for excuses for their loss.

Sexton, who kicked all of Ireland's nine points in defeat at the Stade de France, came off injured in the 69th minute after a tough afternoon in the French capital, with Ireland head coach Joe Schmidt claiming the Leinster fly-half had been "pretty knocked around" by Les Bleus.

And Toner agreed, saying: "He is never happy, having to come off. I didn't chat to him individually but he is a proud character. He never likes to come off.

"The temptation is always there [to react]. But we pride ourselves on our discipline. We pride ourselves that we can rise above it. The referee knows we're a well-disciplined team. If we react, there are cameras out there to see it. We're not that sort of team to be honest."

Defeat in Paris means defending champions Ireland are without a win from their opening two matches of the championship, after they were held to a battling draw with Wales in Dublin last weekend. However, Toner refused to blame a gruelling six-day turnaround for the yesterday's result.

"We're not going to look for excuses," Toner added. "We've been looked after us very well this week in training. We were all on top of our recovery and we all prepared well. It's not something we can make excuses about."

Ireland looked set to achieve back-to-back victories in Paris for the first time since 1927 up until the final quarter against Guy Noves' side, before Maxime Medard's late try and Jules Plisson's conversion saw the French end a four-year championship baron spell against the Irish.

"It was going well," Toner said. "Coming in at half-time, 9-3 we had the upper hand. We didn't feel like they were going anywhere, our defence was good. It didn't feel like they were going to be able to get points. Obviously in the end they put the pressure on us.

"I suppose it's an individual basis. First penalty in first half was me going off my feet. Discipline is a huge factor. In the second half, just being able to lock out a scrum, or hold it out."

Irish captain Rory Best agreed it had been theirs to lose: "It was definitely a massive opportunity for us that we'll be very disappointed we weren't able to take, to push on and win that game.

"We know we had chances. When we look back at it later in the week we'll be really disappointed. We'll look in the second half on how we allowed our boys to get isolated at times."