The curtain-raiser certainly commanded a good performance from the Irish A team at Donnybrook last evening. Though, in truth, this first A win over their French counterparts since 1975 went against the run of play in large chunks of the game, the Irish cutely changed the trend of the match, took their chances, benefited from a couple of favourable decisions and at the end gamely hung on for a notable win.
Ireland were outscored by four tries to two, but whereas Niall Woods landed five from five, the inaptly named Stephane Prosper kicked only two from seven; three of them akin to barn-door-from-two paces variety.
French retention of possession and continuity was infinitely better and number eight Christophe Juillet towered over the game.
The Irish scrum, too, came in for a tough time and the line-out struggled after Allen Clarke's halftime departure. Yet somehow they toughed it out. Both for the second-half tactical shift and the use of tactical substitutions, Mike Ruddock and his advisers had a good game.
Though a bit too much traffic came down his wing for comfort, Woods looked a class apart with the ball in hand. Guy Easterby was a commanding presence and there was a physical presence about John McWeeney and Shane Horgan, but the beefy Gordon D'Arcy, utterly fearless either in defence or running with the ball, was probably the pick of the Irish backs. It's hard to credit he was just playing fellow schoolboys here a year ago.
Easterby set the tempo early with a good sniping break from a scrum, Alan Quinlan arriving in support. Though he was hauled down by Pascal Giordani, he set the ball up well for the supporting Eddie Halvey to drive over.
The French cranked up a couple of gears and the erratic Prosper landed one of two kickable penalty, but Ireland's retort was swift. Everitt kicked a drop goal after Halvey kicked for the corner and Gabriel Fulcher stole the French throw. Better followed. From static restart ball on the Irish 22, Woods received Easterby's pass, but with everyone expecting the kick to touch he veered one way and then the other, beating men for fun en route to the French half. Then, with Quinlan and McWeeney in support, his well-timed offload released the latter and Killian Keane was in support for one of the Irish tries of the season. Woods converted.
Ireland lost their way in the second quarter as the French trundled upfield repeatedly. Moving the ball wide left and then right, Xavier Garbajosa outflanked the defence for full back Nicolas Brusque to give Prosper the scoring pass.
Apart from one break-out and pick-up at speed by Woods, the tide was one way. Even from the ensuing French scrum near their own line, Juillet broke blind, blew through Barry Everitt and released Magnoni. A deft chip and gather did for D'Arcy, and he hared away from just outside the 22. When the Irish failed to control a hardwon restart, the blue wave came once more, ending with Garbajosa scoring and this time Prosper even converted.
A Woods penalty levelled matters and after the interval Ireland regrouped and cut out the frivolous stuff. Along with a couple of enforced substitutions, the Irish were clearly under instruction to slow the pace of the game.
Woods restored the home lead twice either side of Jean Victor Bertrand's try and the winning Woods penalty followed heavy Irish pressure on the French line.
Scoring Sequence 4 mins: Halvey try, Woods con - 7-0 10 mins: Prosper pen - 7-3 12 mins: Everitt drop goal - 10-3 13 mins: Keane try, Woods con - 17-3 24 mins: Prosper try - 17-8 29 mins: Mignoni try, Propser con - 17-20 39 mins: Woods pen - 20-20 42 mins: Woods pen - 23-20 54 mins: Bertrand try - 23-25 55 mins: Woods pen - 26-25
Ireland A: G D'Arcy (Lansdowne); J McWeeney (St Mary's College), S Horgan (Lansdowne), K Keane (Garryowen), N Woods (London Irish); B Everitt (Lansdowne), G Easterby (London Scottish); R Corrigan (Lansdowne), A Clarke (Dungannon, capt), A McKeen (Lansdowne), M Blair (Ballymena), G Fulcher (Lansdowne), A Quinlan (Shannon), A Foley (Shannon), E Halvey (Shannon).
Replacements: R Weir (Portadown) for Clarke (half-time); D Corkery (Cork Constitution) for Halvey (half-time); J Duffy (Galwegians) for Blair (58 mins); E Byrne (St Mary's) for McKeen (79 mins); T Tierney (Garryowen) for Easterby (82 mins).
France A: N Brusque (Pau); X Garbajosa (Toulouse), P Giorani (Dax), F Ribeyrolles (Montferrand), J-V Bertrand (Agen); S Prosper (Agen), P Mignoni (Beziers); P Collazo (Bordeaux), Y Bru (Toulouse), A Galasso (Toulon), D Auradou (Stade Francais), H Miorin (Toulouse), S Betsen (Biarritz), C Juillet (capt), R Sonnes (Agen). REPLACEMENTS: P Versailles (Biarritz) for Auradou (69 mins); R Peillard (Perpignan) for Bru (69 mins); J-B Rue (Auch) for Galasso (69 mins).
Referee: S Piercy (England).
