Awesome French pack put Ireland to the sword

Ireland 13 France 38:THIS WAS like a throwback to the old days when France used to come over here with awesome packs and boss the place. Ireland, understrength due to provincial commitments and injuries, battled gamely but there was no way they were going to overcome the fierce French front eight.

They were without eight of the side who opened the campaign with a 28-9 win in Italy last week and just did not have the resources to make up the ground.

France led 21-6 at the interval but while they were well worth their lead after an opening half when their awesome pack dominated, two of their three tries should not have counted.

Television replays confirmed that French scrumhalf Yann Lesgourgues passed forward before taking a return from his right-winger Pierre Berard and dashing over for their opening try after eleven minutes.

And the the real killer blow came just before the break, resulted in a third try when Berard got over but, once again, the television replay confirmed that Lesgourgues had clearly gone offside when going in front of his winger and helping drag him over and block the Irish rearguard.

Geoffrey Palis had grabed their second on 33 minutes, with skipper Jean Marc Doussain landing all three conversions. Ireland’s first-half tally was the two penalties that impressive outhalf Paddy Jackson knocked over.

Any hopes of an Irish fightback were blown away inside two minutes after the restart when Marvin O’Connor broke down the left for their fourth try, with Doussain landing the touchline conversion.

Hooker Romain Colliat got their fifth after 53 minutes amid fears of a rout but even at 33-6, Ireland regrouped and rallied.

Captain Niall Annett bulldozed over for a try off a lineout in the left corner, with Jackson adding the points, but a succession of replacements and confusion over uncontested scrums disrupted the remainder of the game.

Ireland played out the final 15 minutes with 14 men after replacement prop Finlay Bealham was forced to go off and referee Giuseppe Vivarini of Italy ruled that he could not be replaced.

Inevitably, the French got over again with centre Jules Plisson becoming their sixth try scorer when he crossed at the death.

IRELAND: M Sherlock (Leinster); T O’Halloran (Connacht), A Kelly (Leinster), N McDonald (Coventry), A Boyle (Leinster); P Jackson (Ulster), B McIlroy (Ulster); J Tracy (Leinster), N Annett (Ulster), C Carey (Ulster), D O’Mahony (Munster), D Qualter (Connacht), D Heffernan (Connacht), A Conneely (Connacht), J Murphy (Leinster). Replacements: F Bealham (Ulster) for Carey (40 mins), I Henderson (Ulster) for O’Mahony (54 mins), JJ Hanrahan (Munster) for O’Halloran (61 mins), S Buckley (Munster) for Heffernan; P Du Toit (Leinster) for McIroy (both 68 mins); J McKinney (Ulster) for Boyle (78 mins).

FRANCE: G Palis; P Berard, JP Barraque, J Plisson, M O’Connor; M Doussain, Y Lesgourgues; S Taoffenua, R Collait, W Desmaison, W Demotte, S Vahaamahina, K Gimeno, J Come, G Galan. Replacements: C Bourgeois for Colliat; V Delmas for Desmaison (both 53 mins); M Marie for Vahaamahina; J Buttin for O’Connor (both 55 mins); L Magnaval for Yann; P Julien for Gimeno (both 65 mins), T Visensang for Taoffenua (68 mins).

Referee: G Vivarini (Italy).