French intelligence the key to victory

How France beat Ireland: John O'Sullivanon how the chinks in Ireland's defences were spotted and cleverly exploited on Friday night

It is instructive to note that the sequence of events that led to Vincent Clerc's opening try against Ireland at the Stade de France had never been rehearsed on the training ground. Instead the score came from what might be described as a "heads-up moment" that had its origin in the intelligence of a player watching from the stand.

It wasn't Bernard Laporte that orchestrated this tactical masterpiece but rather the replacement centre Yannick Jauzion. Freddie Michalak, whose delightful right-foot chip provided the opening for Clerc, confirmed it had been a collective process.

"Thanks to watching video footage we had decided to play a lot down (Ronan) O'Gara's channel. The Irish anticipated this and changed their usual defensive formation," said the outhalf.

But it was Jauzion's intercession that proved decisive when it came to formulating the attacking gambit that would yield France's first try.

Wing Cedric Heymans confirmed that France had identified Ireland's rearranged defensive structure whereby the blindside wing (Andrew Trimble) moved in to defend the outhalf channel and fullback Girvan Dempsey pushed up into the rush defence.

"When Yannick came down to warm up with the rest of the replacements after about 20 minutes (in the first half), he came up to me and passed on that information. It was relayed to the centres and then on to Fred (Michalak)," said Heymans.

"Up until the 59th minute we had wanted to try it but the opportunity had never presented itself."

Michalak had confirmed he had seen this and thought it a strange defensive system and one that could be exploited.

"In the 59th minute I saw the wing (Trimble) tap Easterby's hip to signal that he was moving inside to the defensive line. In my peripheral vision I could see that Jauzion was signalling like crazy that this was the moment to try and exploit Ireland's defensive set-up."

Clerc was called inside to suggest that he might run an inside line off his outhalf, but at the last moment he switched back to his wing and with no one there for Ireland simply had to outpace Denis Leamy and Paul O'Connell to Michalak's beautifully weighted right-footed chip to claim possession and touch down for the try.

As a footnote, Michalak and centre Damien Traille noted that the French outhalf had tried one of those kicks with the outside of his foot against Namibia but it hadn't come off, and the Toulouse crowd had shown their displeasure by whistling loudly. Last Friday night the execution and the end result were perfect and the French supporters were in raptures.

Michalak modestly pointed out that he'd tried the gambit with his left foot against Namibia but against Ireland was grateful for the fact that he could employ his more favoured right foot.

Clerc confirmed the audacious tactic had never been practised on the training ground either for Toulouse or France.

The aspect that gave the French outhalf most pleasure: "I am happy because the try proved we were able to adapt to the way Ireland challenged us. It was exactly that: collective intelligence."