Ireland 27-42 France: Six Nations – as it happened
Key events
Blogging machine Lee Calvert is now turning his attention to Murrayfield. Follow it here…
And now we have the match report. Brendan Fanning was at the Aviva Stadium.
Louis Bielle-Biarrey speaks now. “The secret was to play 80 minutes with all the intensity we can have. I got good ball to play and I know it’s my job to finish off. I tried to do my best.” Very modest. He was fantastic.
Irish skipper Caelan Doris pinpoints where it all went wrong. “That middle 20 of the second half was what killed us. I think we didn’t control it well enough in the middle section of the second half. There was some discipline with some back-to-back penalties, we gave them entry but they played their power game. They got a bit of momentum and when we got tight defensively, they can spread it wide to score. That hurt us, big time. It’s disappointing.”
A home win over Scotland next weekend and France will clinch the Six Nations. Looks straightforward following their highest scoring performance on Irish soil.
Thanks Lee. Well, that was some effort by France. If you’d tuned in with Ireland 13-8 ahead and Dupont off, the visitors looked to have it all to do. But then they ran riot, Ireland only sugar-coating the scoreline when the game was done.
I’ll leave you with Dave Tindall for the reaction as I’m off to cover Scotland vs Wales.
FULL TIME! Ireland’s Grand Slam hopes over as France claim a convincing win in Dublin
80 mins. PEEEEEEP! It ends Ireland 27 – 42 France.
TRY! Ireland 27 – 42 France (Jack Conan)
79 mins. Hugo Keenan spirals a kick into the right corner which is a 50:22, meaning the home side will have another chance to make the score a bit more respectable. There’s another France penalty for Prendergast to tap quickly and feed Conan to walk in.
Les Bleus have basically stopped defending in any real way.
TRY! Ireland 20 -40 France (Cian Healy)
77 mins. A charming epilogue for Ireland as Healy crashes over from short to score in his last ever home appearance.
A very old man scoring in a losing effort is apt for the mood of this Ireland squad.
TRY! Ireland 13 – 42 France (Damien Penaud)
75 mins. Ireland are working the phases when Ramos lurches forward to intercept the ball, nonchalantly pass to Penaud who outpaces Prendergast to run 70 metres and score.
This is now a paddling.
YELLOW CARD! Paul Boudehent (France)
74 mins. France are repelling everything with a vindictive aggression, which is summed by Boudehent spoiling the ball cynically and he’s off.
72 mins. Some more phases from Ireland lead to another Prendergast slider into the in-goal area, but this time Moefana is first to it. It was on an advantage and there’ll be another green lineout as they rinse and repeat another attack.
71 mins. The catch and drive comes from Ireland but as sub Herring drives to the line Boudehent gets under him to hold the ball up. France can kick clear, but Ireland will come back at them.
70 mins. A few phases on a knock-on advantage after Boudehent punches the ball forward in the tackle ends with Prendergast trying a speculative chip in-goal that Ramos diffuses. However, on review the knock-on was deliberate and Ireland will have a lineout on the 5m line.
69 mins. There’s something of a festival atmosphere in France’s play, but Ramos takes it a bit far when he mucks about in his own half which allows Henshaw to scrag him and the ball. Ireland have some possession in the blue 22 for the first time in a while.
PENALTY! Ireland 13 – 35 France (Thomas Ramos)
66 mins. Ramos chips a kick towards Penaud but the bounce puts it in Osborne’s hands who clears out on the full under pressure. The next French attack has Clarkson penalised for not releasing in the tackle.
Ramos turns the screw in an almost cruel manner.
63 mins. Prendergast runs a nice loop to find himself in a bit of space. He’s aboput to open up his legs before Jegou flies across and hammers him so hard it dislodges the ball. France scrum in the Irish half.
61 mins. Jack Crowley is on and he and Doris do a great job of holding up Ntamack to win the ball back in a maul. A small momentum stopper from the Ireland defence, and my word did they need it.
TRY! Ireland 13 – 32 France (Oscar Jegou)
58 mins. What a few minutes for the young replacement! He follows up his fanciness out wide with a strong drive and stretch to probably make France’s lead terminal for Ireland.
Ramos add the two.
57 mins. The game is all France now which is dmonstrated by Jegou popping up in the 13 channel and caressing a gorgeous grubber into coffin corner which he then follows up with a big hit on Osborne in the chase. To be fair, Shaun Edwards did say they have back rowers who can play centre.
PENALTY! Ireland 13 – 25 France (Thomas Ramos)
54 mins. Les Bleus return to the Irish 5m zone and pummel the line via carries from Baille and Meafou. The ball is moved left on an advantage as a desperate green defence is inevitably caught offside.
Alldritt tells Ramos to add three, which he duly does.
TRY! Ireland 13 – 22 France (Louis Bielle-Biarrey)
50 mins. France have emptied their bench and the first action of the giant replacements is to counter-ruck the life out of an Ireland breakdown, Penaud is on the ball quick and runs laterally before straightening up and firing the ball to Bielle-Biarrey. The little winger gasses Henshaw, chips forward, runs around Prendergast and dives on it to score.
A marvellous try, converted by Ramos.
48 mins. Ireland are dominating the kick chase action at the minute, with Keenan regathering at will and Gibson-Park putting it on a sixpence for him. The latest possession won via this method has the home side moving left at pace, but the ball ends up in touch.
TRY! Ireland 13 – 15 France (Paul Boudenhent)
46 mins. In the midst of that foul play Les Bleus counter-punch with a big maul in the Irish half that Mauvaka runs into phased play. The ball moves left and then back inside via a couple of fancy offloads and Boudehent forces over to put his side back in front.
Ramos converts and it’s a brilliant response from the visitors.
YELLOW CARD! Calvin Nash (Ireland)
45 mins. Nash is upright in a tackle on Barrassi and is sent for ten minutes for a red card review.
TRY! Ireland 13 – 8 France (Dan Sheehan)
42 mins. Ireland start the second half as they did the first by harrying French possession then out-kicking the visitors to muster attacking possession on the 22. The French defence is offside once more and from lineout close in Beirne claims it to set up a maul that Sheehan darts from the rear of to score.
Prendergast kicks a beauty from the right to add two.
Second Half!
We’re back.
“That French 7-1 split looking even more like jeopardy with Dupont off injured.” says Darryl Accone, “But to the bigger point: when South Africa began its 6-2 split there was ringing of hands over ‘destroying the spirit of rugby’, especially from the English rugger establishment. What can those grandees be thinking and saying about the treacherous Gallic 7-1?”
Well Darryl, the Boks of course went with 7-1 split first, leading former Scotland coach and Australian person Matt Williams to describe it as “immoral”. So we’ve already had the full-on thermonuclear take from an idiot on it.
I don’t want to get into it too much here, but the contact by Beirne on Dupont’s leg that removed him from the game looks very citable in the officials’ post match reviews.
A frenetic, eventful half ends as close on the board as it was on the field. Two evenly matched teams cannot dig enough out of each other to get full ahead and it’s wonderfully poised.
How big an impact will the injury to Dupont be? It’s odd to write, but France may benefit from having Lucu on – or at least not suffer as much as a Dupont absence suggests. The replacement’s style gives a bit more shape and rhythm to the attack and this, along with France’s massive bench, could be what they need in the second half.
Half Time!
That’s the last act of the half.
PENALTY! Ireland 6 – 8 France (Sam Prendergast)
40 mins. Flament is offside on halfway as he lazily doesn’t return behind the back foot when under very little pressure. Prendergast fancies it from halfway and his confidence, as well as the swing of his leg, is well placed.
39 mins. What was I saying about terrible drills? This time it’s Penaud’s turn who retreats to gather a kick with all the urgency of a stoned man telling you an anecdote, when he finally reaches the ball Osborne is all over him and he falls over when trying to run away from the Irishman.
It’s pure luck that Ireland then knock-on in the resulting melee and a solid scrum allows Lucu to exit from the boot.
