B&I in the 'groove' at Vivendi

Britain and Ireland were in dominant mood yesterday at St-Nom-La-Breteche, none more so than Scott Jamieson and Ross Fisher who beat Peter Hanson and Raphael Jacquelin 6&4.

It left Van de Velde admitting his opponents might have to drop their level a little for his side to get back into it.

"I didn't see too many missed putts by them to be honest. They seemed to find the groove," he said.

"At the end of the day, you can only ask the guys to do their best and try to play their best.

Doubt

"There is no doubt from looking at those numbers they are going to have to raise their level of play or, equally, maybe Great Britain and Ireland can lower it down a little bit.

"I would really like that actually."

Only Mark Foster and Lee Westwood failed to win yesterday, but even then it was the closest of calls against Anders Hansen and Francesco Molinari.

One down heading to the 18th, Westwood appeared to have salvaged a half when he holed a 20-foot birdie putt, but Molinari followed suit to ensure Europe at least finished the day with a point. Otherwise the leaderboard was a sea of red, with Simon Dyson and Jamie Donaldson beating Miguel Angel Jimenez and Pablo Larrazabal 2&1, Robert Rock and Ian Poulter 5&3 winners over Thomas Bjorn and Alexander Noren and Darren Clarke and David Horsey securing a one-hole victory over Nicolas Colsaerts and Matteo Manassero.

Britain and Ireland captain Paul McGinley said: "It's important to pace ourselves.

"We have had a great start -- a brilliant start -- but there's a long, long way to go, a lot of points to be played for yet.

"It's a very, very strong European team and we certainly will not be underestimating them.

"We played really good golf, but if we are going to win this we have to keep on playing to that standard because they are going to come back.

"There's nothing surer than that."