There was an air of inevitability about an all-French Heineken Cup final once the scrum dominance of Toulouse and Biarritz started to pay dividends as they ground down Leinster and Munster respectively.
It is one of rugby's dependable and reassuring truths that French teams are powerful in the scrum. It is an area of the game they take great pride in and rarely is a French team bettered due to weaknesses in the front row.
No powder puff Super 14 scrummagers for Les Bleus and Top 14 clubs, rather gnarly props educated in the dark arts, players who rightly see the scrum as a key battle in deciding the outcome of a match - not just a means of restarting the game.
France secured the Grand Slam on the back of a dominant pack, and in particular their outstanding props Nicolas Mas and Thomas Domingo, and now the Heineken Cup trophy is destined for a French club thanks to more outstanding forward play.
Okay, so neither of Biarritz's starting props on Sunday - Campbell Johnstone and Eduard Coetzee - were French, but the Kiwi-South African duo have clearly bought into the French mindset.
Once they had given the Atlantic aristocrats an upper hand in the scrums there was only going to be one winner - and it wasn't going to be the Men in Red.
As for Toulouse's dominance up front against Leinster, credit must go to the Irish side for managing to stay as competitive as they did considering the mullering they were getting in the scrums.
Cian Healy had a nightmare of Elm Street proprtions against Benoit Lecouls, so much so the Ireland international lasted little more than half an hour before CJ van der Linde was brought on to try and stem the tide.
It was a call Leinster boss Michael Cheika had to make, but it did his team little good in the end as the big South African suffered equal torment. Furthermore, the Irish side missed Healy's considerable driving qualities in the loose.
The physical and psychological damage suffered by a pack of forwards as they are constantly pushed backwards is immense, and it pleases OT no end that the IRB appears keen (certainly keener than in the past) to allow teams to try and develop a key advantage in this area.
OT certainly falls into the camp of former England hooker and now highly-regarded pundit Brian Moore, who at times seems to be leading a one-man crusade in favour of retaining the scrum battle in the modern game.
England played the better rugby while going down to France in Paris on the final weekend of the Six Nations, but they were second best in the front row.
Tim Payne and Dan Cole were not in the same class as Mas and Domingo when it came to scrum time. Had they been then England might well have been able to capitalise on the many positive aspects of their play.
France coach Thomas Lievremont's summary was as simple as it was honest when he said of England's not unimpressive performance after the game: "No scrum, no win."
It is a truism that Leinster and Munster will know all about.
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Staying with props, England boss Martin Johnson will be delighted with Phil Vickery's impressive effort against Cardiff Blues on Saturday, despite his club Wasps going down in their European Challenge Cup semi-final.
It was Vickery's first start for six months and the England veteran showed well against none other than Lions team-mate Gethin Jenkins.
Vickery may have recently turned 34, but he very much has his mind set on the 2011 World Cup.
His fitness and late-season form puts him in the running for England's tour Down Under this summer, but OT rather suspects Johnson will give the World Cup winner the chance of a proper pre-season after last year's exploits with the Lions in South Africa.
"We've had a Lions tour in South Africa lsat year and that takes a lot out of players," said Vickery's Wasps and Lions coach Shaun Edwards.
"You don't know how much a Lions tour takes out of a player. We expected him back a little earlier but today he was back to his old self."
England will need a fit and firing Vickery in New Zealand next year, and for their sakes OT hopes the stalwart is left at home to further focus on his conditioning.