France have won the 6 Nations opener for 2026 comfortably 36-14 having led 22-0 at the break. Ireland will know the opening”40” was not acceptable but France were in flying form and played rugby from another planet on occasion with the likes of Dupont, Bielle Biarrey in smashing form.
Shaun Edwards will be pleased to see all the hard yards he and his players but in come to fruition in defence as well as attack. They hounded Ireland through the game and never allowed Ireland settle. Ireland will know some of the decision making in the game left a lot to be desired and will need to be better at many aspects going into to the home game in Dublin against Italy.
Coaches and players alike will need to shoulder reasonability for the manner of the performance and they will know as a group they have so much to work on. They can’t rest on their laurels now as Italy are in town next Saturday before heading to play England in London in week 3.
It might be time for Farrell to begin to pick on form with Nick Timoney showing his quality after coming on as did a share of players who came off the bench admittedly in a team that was beaten by half time. Both scrum and line out worked well and gave some platform in the 2nd half that allowed Ireland create pressure for short bursts in the game late on in particular.
France for their part showed the rest what is required to wrestle the trophy from French hands. Not that the whole game will please Galthie but he knew his side had the job as good as done by half time.
France played front foot rugby mixed with Gallic flair which is so hard to stop, it’s like trying to stop a leak with a handkerchief, it will only do so much to stem the flow… They picked an in form 23 and that helped push them to greater heights with 3 older heads left out on week 1 with those players now likely to face a battle to get a look in barring a number of injuries.
For Ireland, they have little time to circle the wagons and will need to look ahead to the challenge of Italy on Saturday week. A number of changes might be called for but given the margin of the defeat Farrell may be tempted to make minimal change but guys like Micheal Milne and Nick Timoney certainly gave Farrell food for thought.
Sam Prendergast will know he was poor on occasion this evening certainly in the opening half where some of his nervous play led to French scores. He wasn’t alone, some of Ireland’s first up tackling was very poor and Simon Easterby will also need to look into some of the “system failures” that dogged Ireland this evening.
Some of the flowery language used again over the past few weeks by pundits would drive the ordinary punter mad, a mistake and errors are just that and please stop dressing it up to make it sound more acceptable. A mistake is still a mistake no matter how you say it.
France head off into the sun set with a healthy win over Ireland and they can now really set course for a tilt at the Championship and Grand Slam, others like England and Scotland might still have a say but France certainly laid down a strong marker on home soil.
As for Ireland, the Championship hopes as slim as they may have been given current form are extinguished so Farrell has the chance to be brave in selection over the next few weeks. 3 games to come in Dublin as well as England in Twickenham will test the mettle and resolve of the whole squad as the other 4 sides will think they sense blood in the water after the manner of the loss.
Time now for Ireland to stand up and be counted as well as Farrell and his coaches being brave with selection and a different attacking approach…. Let’s see how things unfold….