In the past two seasons, the winner of this match has also won a major. Considering the way Ireland won 38-17 in Marseille, you’d guess they’d be experiencing plenty of pauses again this year, perhaps more than the other four teams in the tournament. can provide.
Three months have passed since the World Cup, and this game is considered a glimpse of the final. In fact, only Ireland are in the same form as they were in that game. Indeed, this game was the first time both teams answered the question that has been plaguing them since the final moments of the knockout rounds – what now? France clearly didn’t have an answer yet, but their performance was littered with handling errors and missed tackles.
They sorely miss Antoine Dupont’s leadership and his ability to turn games around when his team’s going against them. Ireland, on the other hand, were as strong and flexible as ever and were even better at set-pieces.
Ireland have clearly been working on some repairs to their lineouts, which had become quite inconsistent by the end of the World Cup. France were tested early on with a kick, which Ireland won by throwing to Tadhg Beirne, and two more in the following minutes. One was in his own 22 when Damian Penaud was tackled by Hugo Keenan, while the other was in France when Peter O’Mahony O’Mahony bravely chose to send Jack Crowley’s penalty into the corner. The lineout resulted in a penalty in front of the post, which Crawley converted to give his team a 3-0 lead.
It was then that the Irish were bleeding for the first time, and they seemed stronger for seeing it. They were also on their feet minutes later when Paul Williams was booked and sent to the bunker after hitting Andrew Porter’s head. Porter was dealing with Mathieu Jalibert when Williams rushed over and hit him in the chin with his shoulder. France finally breathed a sigh of relief after nine minutes, with referee Carl Dixon telling captain Gregory Alderitt that Williams would be allowed to return to the game. As it turns out, that’s the case for the time being.
Alderit didn’t have much time to enjoy the good news. Jamison Gibson-Parker scored for Ireland shortly after. This comes after several speaking engagements from Bundee Aki, who has clearly carried his fiery World Cup form into this year’s Championship. France have one of those strong midfielders in Jonathan Dante and Gael Fekou, but Aki has made a burger out of them.
Ireland started so fast that France were already hanging on. They only managed to prevent Ireland from scoring again minutes later when Crawley was intercepted just short of the goal line and the ball was blocked by Tadhg Furlong after it had flown past. Then Crawley missed a penalty kick in the frontcourt, Thomas Ramos kicked the first three points, and the French team finally gained a foothold in the game. This marked yet another shift in the momentum of the game and things immediately started to go from bad to worse for France.
Moments later, Pito Movaca struck Crowley with a thump, which would have been a good thing had Crowley not passed the ball to Beirne, who charged past Movaca in the The French team left a big hole in their defense and scored without an opponent. post. Then, with the score at 17-3, Williams was shown a second yellow card a few minutes later for another shoulder charge, this time against Kellan Doris. Of course, as another Irishman said, once might be considered misfortune, twice begins to look careless.
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We need a lip reader to tell us if that’s what Porter whispered as Williams walked off the court. Now 14 points behind and down to 14 men, France finally got into the game. They had their best offense of the half (to be fair, they only scored twice, so the options were slim), and they engineered a four-on-two overlap that allowed Penault to score to make it 17-10. Ireland extended the game and their lead early in the second half when Calvin Nash took a corner kick.
That should have solved the problem, except, as is often the case these days, France played better in 14 than in 15. Ireland lost O’Mahony in the same stretch when he was sent to the sin bin after he fell on a maul while preparing to play. But the rule works both ways and when Ireland were 14 points down, Dan Sheehan drove the ball over after converting another penalty and Ireland scored again.
O’Mahony was sent to the sin bin during the same stretch of the race after he fell on a maul during the run-up. Ronan Kelleher added another in a similar move in the final minutes to complete a right old game. As a result, Ireland are already favorites, while France still have a lot to do.
