Ireland hang on for famous victory

Ireland 22France 15

17/02/01: A massive win and a deserved win, Ireland's first on home soil over Les Bleus since 1983 (when curiously it finished 22-16) even if the last quarter or so of the game was more taut than a Carlos Santan guitar.

Having been on the offensive pretty much throughout the first hour to lead 22-3, Ireland were then pegged back by a French side playing catch-up. Nobody plays catch-up better and by the end the feverish tension in Lansdowne Road was such t hat you could almost have put a knife through it.

There was a degree of dissatisfaction too in the final scoreline, and no doubt the French will quibble about it long and hard, in that Ireland were outscored by two tries to one and their own try, by the brilliant Brian O'Driscoll (who else?), looked decidedly dodgy.

It required six reshowings by the video referee and some persuasive encouragement from the home crowd before the try was awarded after a three-minute delay. Against that, Ireland played by far the more positive rugby and had Ronan O'Gara been at his immaculate best with the placed ball would have been comfortably two scores clear before that nerve-wracking denouement.

In a sense too, France got no more than they deserved. Under Bernard Laporte France have increasingly reverted to a biff, bang wallop approach which fails their heritage. It was only when the game was almost up that they finally released their backline and started to use the ball more adventurously through the hand.

Up until then, that they were still in the game at all was due to their muscular tackling and well organised defence. The most repeated memory of this game will be of Irish ball carriers attempting to locate near non-existent holes in a thicket of French jerseys, and it's to Brian O'Driscoll's eternal credit that despite also being the most marked man on the pitch, he succeeded more than anybody, sometimes turning water into wine.

Mind you, he had significant help in the penetrating Rob Henderson, who is assuredly becoming a stronger Lions' contender with each pasing game, and David Wallace. Wider out, Tyrone Howe and Denis Hickie also provided a threat while inside the jinking, graceful O'Gara also kept the French defence honest too with some nimble breaks.

The pack though, answered the big questions, and stood up where it counted. The scrums, apart from maybe two French shoves at most, held like a rock for the most part and by the end was even giving the ever-willing Anthony Foley a platform for some pick-ups.

Credit to the unfairly pilloried John Hayes, who tackled and rumbled mightily in the loose, as did the entire front-row. The Irish line-out, where Malcolm O'Kelly augmented a huge performance, was much the better too and ultimately proved far more influential on the scoreboard than the much hyped French scrum.

The opening exchanges quickly settled into the expected pattern and set the tone for what was a dour enough first-half. France sought to rumble close in through their big target runners, such as Fabien Pelous, David Auradou and Christophe Moni. Ireland sought to move the ball wide to Brian O'Driscoll, Tryone Howe and Denis Hickie

As big a moment as any came in the third minute when Auradou came peeling off a ruck just inside the Irish half, and was initially held up superbly by Malcolm O'Kelly before being driven back with the additional help of John Hayes, so earning Ireland the game's first penalty. As a physical and psychological statement of intent, Ireland had readily drawn the lines in the sand.

Moving the ball wide to O'Driscoll, Ireland were rewarded. Auradou was offside at a ruck and O'Gara opened the scoring inside five minutes. A more embarrassing attempt at a three-point followed when Keith Wood scuffed a drop goal attempt.

France committed enough handling errors to help keep them pinned for the most part in their own half, all the more so with Girvan Dempsey as solid as a rock when dealing with anything high or along the deck, and France offered little or none of the French flair out wide.

However, their fringe defence was at times awesomely strong, the heavy tackles helping to delay Ireland's ruck ball and in turn their organisation across the line never suffered for lack of numbers. Three handling errors by Ronan O'Gara and a disrupted Irish scrum further prevented a breakthrough, although the supposed Achilles heel of the Irish pack held up pretty well while the line-out, where O'Kelly and Mick Galwey both nicked Raphael Ibanez throws, was by far the better.

Nevertheless, France drew level through a Christophe Lamaison penalty after O'Kelly came in from the side. The Irish lock redeemed himself by winning the ensuing restart, O'Driscoll and Mick Galwey setting up rucking targets before O'Gara stroked the penalty wide.

O'Driscoll then make a silk purse out of a sow's ear with static ball inside his own 22 from behind an Irish ruck, weaving through the blue ranks this way and that before finding touch deep in the corner with a cross kick for Howe.As France opted for a long throw, Christophe Juillet stepped over the line before Raphael Ibanez released the ball for O'Gara to restore the lead.

A reversed penalty against Quinlan for pulling a jersey off the ball prevented the lead being extended but while Lamaison was binned for catching Howe in the face with a trailing hand, O'Gara landed a monster 48-metre penalty to give Ireland a hard-earned 9-3 lead at the interval.

A subtle change of tactics and a refocusing of energy saw Ireland hit the ground running on the resumption. A brilliant line-out steal by O'Kelly and some pick and go rumbles from O'Kelly and Hayes, bursting clear as the French fanned out before finding the increasingly influential Wallace in support.

With French hands indiscriminately loose on the deck at ruck time, O'Gara was able to land a penalty before missing another one. Even so, Henderson made a brilliant charge through the relative soft touch of Richard Dourthe and Olivier Magne, offloaded tothe supporting Wallace who in turn moved it on to O'Driscoll.

Sprinting up the touchline, he dived for the line and fended off the tackle from Xavier Gaqrbajosa, though seemed to lose control of the ball before it touched the ground. It was a close one, and Ireland's rub of the green was rubbed in to French wounds when O'Gara nailed the touchline conversion.

Soon after O'Gara showed the ball, cut through the gap and chipped Garbajosa, who obstructed him for the out-half to make it 22-3. Perhaps they relaxed, and undoubtedly France upped a gear. In a reprise of their decisive try two years ago, Richard Dourthe was credited with the touchdown from a close-range maul off a tap penalty, and intense pressure yielded a further try when for once France moved it wide off a strong scrum through Lamaison and Franck Comba to give Philippe Bernat-Salles a big angle on Hickie.

Relievingly, Lamaison scuffed the touchline conversion, and though there were still some scary moments Ireland held on primarily because they didn't adopt the hanging on mentality of yore. Instead they kept the ball in hand, and kept probing, O'Gara alas missing a 40 metre penalty which would have put the issue beyond doubt before some teak tough tackling was required across the pitch in six nerve-wracking minutes of additional time.

For the most part, an excellent performance though, yielding first back-to-back wins over the French since the early 70s. Fortune favoured the brave and the season is set up nicely now.

Scoring sequence: 5 mins O'Gara pen 3-0; 19 mins Lamaison pen 3-3; 29 mins O'Gara pen 6-3; 40 mins O'Gara pen 9-3; (half-time 9-3); 43 mins O'Gara pen 12-3; 50 mins O'Driscoll try, O'Gara con 19-3; 55 mins O'Gara pen 22-3; 61 mins Dourthe try, Lamaison con 22-10; 72 mins Bernat-Salles try 22-15.

Ireland: G Dempsey (Terenure College and Leinster); D Hickie (St Mary's College and Leinster), B O'Driscoll (Blackrock and Leinster), R Henderson (Wasps), T Howe (Dungannon and Ulster); R O'Gara (Cork Con and Munster); P Stringer (Shannon and Munster), P Clohessy (Young Munster and Munster); K Wood (Harlequins, capt), J Hayes (Shannon and Munster), M Galwey (Shannon and Munster), M O'Kelly (St Mary's College and Leinster), A Quinlan (Shannon and Munster), A Foley (Shannon and Munster), D Wallace (Garry owen and Munster).

Replacements: E Byrne (St Mary's College and Leinster) for Clohessy, G Longwell (Ballymena) for Galwey, A Ward (Ballynahinch) for Quinlan (all 73 mins), K Maggs (Bath) for Henderson (75 mins).