France 20 Ireland 15:Ireland's under-20s fell at the hands of their French counterparts in the second match of their Six Nations Championship this evening.
The visitors had chances and took some through outhalf James McKinney but in the end just couldn’t unlock an aggressive French defence late on,
The homeside ever even won a scrum against the head to deny Ireland and the death.
McKinney got the scoreboard ticking over early on and turned in a perfect first half display in which he landed four from four.
France, however, scored the crucial try of the match in a typical counter attacking move. A lose kick from defence was gathered by Toulon’s Jérémy Sinzelle, who galloped fifty metres before a simple outside pass to Mathieu Lamoulie.
The centre showed powered over for an 8-3 ahead.
After a dominant start from France, McKinney slotted three more penalties for 12-8 lead and Darren Hudson, Andrew Conway and particularly Simon Zebo looked dangerous with ball-in-hand.
France closed the gap early in the second half when Gilles Bosch kicked his second penalty and then added two more following a high tackle from Ryan in front of the posts and a powerful French maul that drove Ireland back, forcing them to pull it down on 58 minutes.
Ireland lost McKinney to an eye injury bur replacement Brian Kingston landed a difficult penalty on the hour for 17-15.
It was as close as they got, however, as fullback Conway was pulled down just short of the line and Bosch brought it to 20-15 with a late penalty.
Earlier this evening, the Irish women's team were beaten 19-9 at the Stade Allees in Blois.
Ireland's only points in testing conditions came from fullback Niamh Briggs, who scored two penalties in the first half and one in the second.
The French ran in three tries at crucial times, however, to gain revenge for last year’s shock reversal in Ashbourne.