France - 40 Ireland - 29 Ireland had to be satisfied with sixth place in the IRB under-21 World Cup as France mounted a stunning second-half comeback to win 40-29 at Ellis Park, Johannesburg, yesterday.
Ireland led 26-7 at the break but ran out of steam in the second period. However, thecampaign has proved a major plus with the emergence of such fine players as Eoghan Hickey, Brian O'Riordan, Martin McPhail and Matthew McCullough.
Ireland must have thought they had the match wrapped up by half-time with four well-taken tries. Hickey, who was superb throughout the match, marshalled his backline with pinpoint passing and clever tactical kicking allowing green jerseys to make deep forays behind French lines.
As early as the fifth minute McPhail was given enough space to step inside his marker and then coil his body and throw himself over the line to open the scoring.
Ireland kept up the pressure, which led to captain McCullough crashing over from a powerful forward drive in the 19th minute.
On the stroke of half-time Hickey danced his way through three French tacklers to make it 26-7 after McPhail had scored his second try nine minutes earlier.
But France responded with staggering electricity and pieced together some fine moves that led to tries for left wing Pierre Negre Gauthier and centre Guillaume Bousses which put their side into the lead for the first time.
The steady boot of Hickey put Ireland back in front at 29-28 with eight minutes to play. But France kept surging at the Irish defensive line and after a movement that swept the length of the field, Ireland managed to turn possession over only to see McPhail throw and awful pass inside his 22-metre area for French full back David Bortolussi to intercept and score under the posts. It ended the match as a contest and as the siren sounded France scored a sixth try to claim fifth place.
SCORING SEQUENCE: 5 mins: McPhail try, 5-0; 19: McCullough try, Hickey con, 12-0; 23: McPhail try, Hickey con, 19-0; 31: Clerq try, Laharrangue con, 19-7; 39: Hickey try and con, 26-7; 51: Chobet try, Bortolussi con, 26-14; 60: Gauthier try, Bortolussi con, 26-21; 69: Bousses try, Bortolussi con, 26-28; 72: Hickey pen, 29-28; 74: Bortolussi try, 29-33; 80: Cherot try, Laharrangue con, 29-40.
IRELAND: S Young; M McPhail, G Duffy, C O'Sullivan, J Norton; E Hickey, B O'Riordan; J Lyne, R Best, B Young, S Keogh, M McCullough (capt), S Jennings, C Hartington, R Wilson. Replacements: M Carroll for Hartigan (45 mins), J Muldoon for Jennings (58), T Barker for Keogh (58), K Corrigan for Best (60).
FRANCE: D Bortolussi; V Clerq, G Bousses, JP Grandclaude, P Negre-Gauthier; N Laharrangue, A Sallecanne; S Chobet, J Campo, V Debaty, R Friand, S Pettigianni, T Dusautoir, B Bordenhave, G Lamboley (capt). Replacements: R Cheron for Debaty (33), M Siro for Sallecanne (40), P Ancelin for Grandclaude (60), M Diebolt for Bordenhave (60), M Etcheverria for Negre-Gauthier (76), J Fiore for Campo (77).
:quality(70)/cloudfront-eu-central-1.images.arcpublishing.com/irishtimes/YVIRIOZQ35EWRPZXR27KGMO6YU.png)