APeople said Ireland would never win the final. The 2024 Six Nations, and even the 2027 World Cup, started and ended on a breezy night in Marseille, with Ireland beating France on a bonus point, beating the tournament favorites and setting the stage for the next generation of the Andy Farrell era. One chapter writes the blueprint and builds lasting peace in the Middle East.
Too much? too fast? Well, why not? Sport has always been about dreams and action, and for the thousands of Irish fans crammed into a small corner of the Velodrome Stadium, it was a night to silence the noise and stand up in the face of hostility. Let go of past torture. It was an examination and an exhibition, to be sure, but it was also an exorcism. In short, this was a night for Joe McCarthy to get back on the hype train and dare another injury for the next two Lions.
Yes, France’s performance was indescribably poor, especially in the first half, which will likely go down as one of the worst halves of the Fabian Galtier era. They lost their all-time great Antoine Dupont, who is still struggling with injury, and were reduced to 14 men in the first half after Paul Willemse’s no-brainer dismissal .
Still, there was something thrilling about the way Ireland simply held them back, meeting violence with violence, meeting the rolling noise with patience, skill and pure, unapologetic excellence.
Perhaps that’s not surprising when you consider the wider context: a Six Nations opener that also feels like a palate cleanser, one that takes place in the foothills of a huge, horrific pain on consecutive October nights in Paris the match of. No Grand Slam can truly fill the void robbed of Ireland and France at last year’s World Cup, but the rebirth of a new cycle can bring some consolation. Football is a wound, football is also a bandage.
Still, they seem to be approaching it slightly differently. Galtier spoke of the “fighting intensity” in the build-up to this game, “Irish forced us to make 200 tackles and 200 tackles without having the ball”, with the balance between talent and fighting leaning towards fighting. The selection of Yoram Moefana on the wing and Paul Gabrillagues on the wing shows that the France manager is prepared to back up his words with action.
Maybe it’s a completely natural reaction to trauma, when something you thought you had control over is taken away from you. Part of the reason you choose your body is that it is something known and something you can control. But also part of it is that you’re still hurt, and violence feels like the appropriate response.
While France had a bellicosity and heft here, it felt unfocused and unbalanced, aggressive in the wrong places and passive in the wrong places, departing from what they have always done best. Their brawls are solid and their mauls are churning. But if you just want Tahbeln to run right through you, this is largely irrelevant.
Williams’ yellow card came at the perfect time for Ireland, just as they were starting to settle into the game. The red card – a second of the same attack – epitomized France’s poor judgment throughout the evening. TV cameras captured him sitting solemnly on a bench, head bowed, shoulders hunched, wincing, which you could tell was what they should have been doing in the first place.
The Irish second row, on the other hand, was fantastic all night. In the two-metre-long McCarthy, Ireland has impressive physical specimens of the kind that traditionally had to be imported, such as avocados. But here, as he subverts and dominates, as he forges an ominous partnership with Beirne, it’s possible to glimpse a glittering future. Yes: He’s going to be a great NFL player one day.
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In a way, Ireland offers a novel answer to the age-old question of how teams recover from sporting trauma. Do you start over and wipe the slate clean? Or do you keep doing the same thing that brings you to the brink of glory?
You do both. You endure and evolve at the same time. You’ll find new challenges, new areas to conquer.
It’s been more than 50 years since Ireland beat France away from home by more than two points. No Irish team has ever won at this stadium. Thirteen players in this Ireland squad belong to the Leinster side that suffered a disastrous defeat in the final minutes of the Champions League final against La Rochelle a few years ago.
So yes, even amid the familiar buzz of Six Nations victory, Ireland are still breaking new ground and finding their outer limits. It’s almost four years until the next World Cup, and the last one was less than four months away. Yes, it is hope that kills you. But at the same time, hope also makes you feel alive.
