France will go into the final day of this season’s 6 Nations in pole position to lift another Six Nations crown after a 42-27 win over Ireland in Dublin yesterday.
Ireland will know they left opportunities behind them in particular in the opening 20 minutes where they dominated possession and territory but they could not make that count as they were held up over the line and then turned over on the try line. When you miss these chances against the best teams you will regret not taking your chance when they are presented.
France had a break away try chalked off owing to a knock on in the build up and that signalled the intent of the French attack after the Shaun Edwards drilled defence had held under a barrage of pressure in that opening 20 minutes.
The moment that had France reeling after the game came in the 29th minute when Antoine Dupont was trying to secure a turn over and he was knock backwards by Tadgh Beirne and Andrew Porter and did enough damage to his knee that saw him replaced by Bordeaux Begles scrum half Maxime Lucu.
In the aftermath of the game yesterday, Fabien Galthie has said he will be reporting the actions of Beirne, Porter and Calvin Nash to the citing commissioners so I have the feeling that the Irish camp hasn’t heard the last of those two incidents from the game.
Back to the game, after Dupont went off the introduction of Lucu seemed to take time to take hold and affect the game but as the first half drew to a conclusion France were beginning to gain control and they led 8-6 at the half through a Ramos penalty and Bielle Biarrey try.
In response Ireland had two penalties from Sam Prendergast who was very clever in the final moments of that opening half by nudging his penalty attempt slightly above the given mark and placing the ball on the half way line and then finding his range to kick a fine penalty.
Ireland did lose Joe Mc Carthy to a very silly yellow card for pulling Bielle Biarrey back as he tried to race clear to regather a kick ahead. France played a typical French game plan of playing what is in front of you and going from anywhere and that kept the Irish defence constantly guessing.
Ireland lost James Lowe in warm up to a back spasm which brought Calvin Nash into the side on the right wing with Jamie Osbourne moving over the left wing. This loss had an impact on the game plan on the day but to be fair to Calvin Nash who also saw yellow for head contact in the tackle which was deemed on the lower part of the scale and the yellow card was deem sufficient punishment for Nash.
These two cards absolutely killed any momentum that Ireland build up in both halves and allowed France attack through Ramos, Penaud, Mofana et al…. The 7/1 split also had the desired affect when the game was in the melting pot after Dan Sheehan got over to put Ireland 13-8 up early in the second half.
Unfortunately for Ireland that is as good as it got as France fired straight back and reclaimed the lead that they would not relinquish for the final 30 minutes of the contest and even though Ireland did manage two late tries through Cian Healy on the occasion of his last appearance in the Aviva and Jack Conan both were converted by Sam Prendergast.
The Irish attack didn’t flow as well as it has done previously and even with the best efforts of Hugo Keenan in particular who seemed to take on the James Lowe role of being the extra man in whichever attacking shape Ireland were trying to use.
Full credit must go to the French defence who worked so hard to get off the line and close down any attempt by Ireland to get to the outside and try and create chances for scores. It was a lesson in keeping bodies on their feet and keeping disciplined under pressure.
Ireland need to clean up their act in defence, they have given up a number of cards in this campaign with a game to go in Rome next Saturday at 2.15pm.
I think Simon Easterby will make a few changes to the side for the last game with still a slim mathematical chance of a title. It is of course unlikely that France will now be caught but Scotland go to Paris full of beans and hell bent on trying to deny France a win on home soil to seal another title.
Here is the XV I would select to play in Rome –
15 Hugo Keenan
14 Calvin Nash
13 Garry Ringrose
12 Robbie Henshaw
11 James Lowe
10 Jack Crowley
9 Jamison Gibson Park
8 Caelan Doris
7 Josh Van Der Flier
6 Tadgh Beirne
5 James Ryan
4 Joe Mc Carthy
3 Finlay Bealham
2 Dan Sheehan
1 Andrew Porter
–
16 Ronan Kelleher or Gus Mc Carthy
17 Cian Healy
18 Thomas Clarkson
19 Gavin Coombes
20 Jack Conan
21 Conor Murray
22 Sam Prendergast
23 Jamie Osbourne