Coach rues French defeat

News round-up: Despite watching his side demolish England in Croke Park at the weekend and mark a historic day with a monumental performance, the defeat to France a fortnight earlier still rankles with Ireland coach Eddie O'Sullivan.

The French thwarted his side's Grand Slam ambitions with a cruelly timed try that silenced the stadium on its debut in the competition. The subsequent 43-13 win over England makes that all the more difficult to take, for the coach, even though it nudged the Six Nations title bid back on track.

With Scotland and Italy in his sights now, the coach knows that two more wins may have a bitter sweet reward.  Another four points could secure the championship, if France lose to either England or Scotland, and a win over Scotland will ensure the Triple Crown, but even then there will be a blot on the copy book.

"If France gave us a good hiding or won by 10 or 15 points it would be easier to take," he said today. "But the hard thing to take about the result is that we put ourselves in a winning position.

"We all thought when Ronan O'Gara kicked his last penalty it was job done. The loss was the cruellest of blows and we've never suffered one like it before. England lost four possible Grand Slams under Clive Woodward. They had four cracks at it before winning, which indicates how difficult it is to do.

"England had to live with that and they got better because of it — that's the approach we must take. But if we go on top and win the next two matches then that France game will always be on the back of our minds."

Unbeaten France are in the driving seat to retain their title with fixtures against England at Twickenham and Scotland in Paris yet to come. O'Sullivan has not given up hope of one of them halting the French and is hoping he will need his calculator with the championship then likely to be decided by points difference.

"We can still win four out of five. France didn't win the Grand Slam last year because they lost to Scotland, but they still won the championship," he said. "England have France at Twickenham and they believe they can win that game.

"If that happens it will open the championship up once again and it will come down to points difference. That's about as good as we can do at the moment."

The Scots were thumped 37-17 by Italy at the weekend and O'Sullivan fears Ireland will face the inevitable backlash when they travel to Edinburgh on March 10th.

"Against Scotland the danger is they are very capable of bouncing back from a bad performance," he said. "They were poor against England, then demolished Wales and lost to Italy. I can't imagine there will be anything less than a hearty welcome for us when we got to Murrayfield."

The coach today took his final training session before a well earned rest for most of the squad. Flanker Neil Best was absent as a precaution after suffering a dead leg. The squad now disperse until Sunday when they will reassemble ahead of Monday morning's training in St. Gerard's School in Bray.

The nine players added to this week's training squad and the replacements against England will return to their provinces and will be available for selection for Magner's League ties at the weekend.

Munster have wasted no time in reclaiming their goods, having included Jerry Flannery and Mick O'Driscoll in the squad to face Cardiff at Musgrave Park.
 
Declan Kidney also welcomes back Trevor Halstead, John Kelly and John O'Sullivan following their recovery from injury with Halstead in line to make his first appearance since early January when he sustained a calf injury.

Meanwhile, Leinster have decided against releasing Felipe Contepomi for Argentina's international against the French Barbarians on Saturday.
 
While Leinster are not in action this weekend, they are under no obligation to make the outhalf available as the match is not an official test and with lingering concerns over his fitness coach Michael Cheika appears to have erred on the side of caution.

Contepomi absence is a blow for Pumas coach Marcelo Loffreda, who said: "The absence of Felipe Contepomi is something that affects us a lot because it prevents us from seeing through all we had planned."
 
France are releasing 12 of their squad for the Barbarians team.

Munster squad (v Cardiff): C Cullen, S Payne, I Dowling, J Kelly, B Murphy, L Mafi, T Halstead, E Hickey, J Manning, B O'Meara, T O'Leary, T Buckley, F Pucciariello, D Hurley, F Sheahan, J Flannery, M O'Driscoll, C Wyatt, D Ryan, M Melbourne, J O'Sullivan, A Quinlan, T McGann.