French infringements were crucial

One of the more contentious areas of last Sunday's epic Irish win in Stade de France was the scrum, where referee Paul Honnis was heavily criticised in French circles for penalising the home side.

However, Keith Wood yesterday backed Honnis when declaring that the main reason the Irish scrum came under pressure was because the French were scrummaging illegally.

"There's no doubt that our scrum was definitely under pressure at times, but the reason being that they weren't adhering to the new rules," said the Irish captain. "The referee spotted that and that's why they were penalised."

Amid a cacophony of booing, Honnis penalised France on several occasions at times when the Irish scrum was being shoved backwards, prompting criticism from, among others, former French prop Serge Simon who claimed that the French were not allowed to scrum aggressively and therefore could not wear out a very fast Irish pack.

But the Irish hooker saw things a good deal differently. And he had a rather better viewpoint.

"Franck Tournaire, their tighthead, was boring down and boring in. The first time he did this, the Claw (Peter Clohessy) bore in with him and he got penalised, so he (Clohessy) didn't do it again. I explained to the referee what was happening, the referee checked it and he gave us three or four penalties."

The amended scrummaging laws oblige both scrums to engage each other more square on, and are stricter on boring in sideways. The laws make for a more even contest if adhered to by both front rows; however in cases such as in last Sunday's game they will lead to one side being heavily punished if infringements are detected by the referee.

The line-outs, Wood agreed, "were a little bit messy", although of the three that were technically lost the Irish captain revealed he deliberately threw one to the opposition.

"They had six in the line against our five and I could see that the referee had already noticed, so I threw that to him deliberately."

Another throw cleared Malcolm O'Kelly and was gathered by Abdel Benazzi, but it transpired that the French flanker had nobbled the lifter and so O'Kelly was barely able to get airborne.

That said, Wood admitted that it was "a very clean game", although he again asserted that the opening quarter was the fastest he'd ever played in.

"I've said I was happy that we were only six points down at that point, and in fact I was delighted. It was so fast in that opening 20 minutes that nobody was talking."

In previous Parisian sorties, Irish teams would undoubtedly have wilted in the face of such an onslaught and Wood concurred with the post-match assertion that the French were puffing harder in the last 20 minutes, suggesting that the home side's opening quarter may have contributed to the French burning themselves out.

"I was wrecked after five minutes, knackered after 30 minutes and absolutely shattered at halftime. But in the second half I felt fine," Wood said.

"It was as if I got my second wind in the second half, which you normally get after 10 minutes."

The Ireland team's fitness levels and resilience were truly borne out in the 10-minute period just past the hour when Paddy Johns was sin-binned.

Individual Irish players revealed afterwards that they could scarcely believe the extent to which each of the other 14 lifted their performance level. Little or nothing was said at that juncture, there was just a sleeves-rolled-up realisation of what the occasion demanded. "It didn't affect us in the slightest," Wood maintained. "We hardly even noticed we were down to 14 men."

After the game, and prior to the official banquet, Wood, Mick Galwey, team coach Warren Gatland and manager Donal Lenihan stopped off at Kitty O'Shea's pub in Paris.

By their accounts, and those of supporters there, the welcoming almost lifted the roof off and so loud was the rendition of The Fields of Athenry that French TV3's interviews could scarcely be heard. By the end of the evening, after most of the squad had returned there, the pub had literally run out everything but Guinness and whiskey. Fittingly, the place had been drunk dry.