Next Saturday Ireland will host France at the Aviva Stadium at 2.15pm, and one question immediately springs to mind. Whatever about round four rather than round five, what the hell is it doing in the 2.15pm slot? This is box office and it should be prime time.
For the last three seasons this clash has looked like the title decider and so it has transpired. France won a cracker 30-24 in round two in 2021 and went on to win a Grand Slam ahead of Ireland, who won their other four matches. The following year, again in round two, Ireland won a contest of unrelenting quality by 32-19 en route to the Slam, with France winning their other four games.
Last season, on the opening Friday night, Ireland won 38-17 in Marseilles with the standout performance of the campaign. And although they lost to England in round four while France rode their luck to finish second after drawing at home with Italy, ultimately the match again proved to be the title decider.
The first of those at least took place in the Saturday teatime slot, while the Dublin clash was also a little underappreciated in the first game of the round at 2.15pm. Last year’s clash could have been a World Cup final but was unveiled far too prematurely on the opening Friday night.
Why the hell is Ireland v France on at 2.15pm on a Saturday? This is a rugby rivalry for the ages
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By rights, this fixture should be the night-time finale to Super Saturday or at least in the early evening slot next Saturday.
Since 2000, Italy have never been credible title contenders and Scotland are without a title since 1999, meaning the Six Nations has been won by just four countries over the last quarter of a century. Ireland, and often Wales, were never viable contenders in the 1990s, yet despite this one has to go back to the 1976-1978 era to find the last time the same two countries contested what proved to be the title decider for three successive championships.
That was a generational Welsh team, with Gareth Edwards and Phil Bennett at halfback, JJ Williams and Gareth Davies on the wings and JPR Williams at fullback. France were led by the original “petit caporal”, Jacques Fouroux, prolific outhalf Jean-Pierre Romeu, future captain Jean-Pierre Rives and goal-kicking number eight Jean-Pierre Bastiat.
Wales beat Ireland, England and Scotland by an average of 20 points (huge margins in those days) and France did so by an average of 17 points per game. Wales completed a Grand Slam on the penultimate weekend with a 19-13 win in Cardiff.
The following year, Fouroux captained France to their second Grand Slam, with the same 15 players in all four matches (the only time this has happened) and without conceding a try – the only other Grand Slam winner to achieve that feat were England in 1913.
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France won the crunch game on the second weekend by 16-9 thanks to tries by the Toulouse winger Dominique Harize, the other member of that illustrious backrow, Jean-Claude Skrela (and like Fouroux another future French head coach), as well as the boot of Romeu. That pivotal meeting in the Parc des Princes was the subject of the 1978 film Grand Slam, for which the ending had to be rewritten after Wales unexpectedly lost.
Wales were the first Triple Crown winners to finish as runners-up in the championship and the following year, although the other three put it up to them, the same pair set up the first ever Grand Slam shoot-out in the championship’s history. Wales won 16-7 in the Cardiff Arms Park thanks to two tries and a conversion by Bennett, as well as drop goals by Edwards and Steven Fenwick.
The two countries also finished first and second in 1979, but Wales claimed that title despite losing to France, who drew in the old Lansdowne Road and lost in Twickenham.
So, that makes Ireland-France the outstanding championship rivalry in almost four decades, with the likelihood of going one better next Saturday.
True, the pair may not occupy the first and second places for the fourth year running. There is even a chance of England reclaiming the title with their percentage-based, prescriptive brand of rugby. But that’s unlikely.
They sit third, four points behind Ireland and three behind France, but with a vastly inferior points difference. So for them to win the title, they would probably not only need to beat Italy at home and Wales away with bonus points but hope that France beat Ireland and then lose at home to Scotland.
Accordingly, England’s odds on winning the title have drifted to 17-1, whereas Ireland are 8-13 favourites and France are 8-5. And, well, bookies and bicycles and all that.
Either way, whoever wins next Saturday’s clash will go into the final weekend in pole position, with Ireland away to Italy in the opening match and France at home to Scotland in the Super Saturday finale.
Ireland will probably now need to win all five matches, ie the Grand Slam, in order to win the title. Lose next Saturday, and they would need two bonus points to stay above France in the table due to Les Bleus having a vastly superior points difference of +91 compared to Ireland’s +28.
Remember, too, that this Ireland-France rivalry comes at a time when Leinster have been playing out huge Champions Cup games against both La Rochelle and Toulouse in each of the last three seasons, and something similar could happen again this season. Leinster have thrashed Toulouse in two semi-finals and La Rochelle in a quarter-final before losing the last three finals against one or the other.
This has fuelled some of the individual rivalries on show next Saturday, such as Dan Sheehan and Rónan Kelleher against Peato Mauvaka and Juilien Marchand. Other interesting head-to-heads include: Andrew Porter v Uini Atonio, Joe McCarthy v Emanuel Meafou, Josh van der Flier v Paul Boudehent, Caelan Doris v Gregory Alldritt, Jamison Gibson-Park v Antoine Dupont and Hugo Keenan v Thomas Ramos.
It’s hard to imagine there’s ever been a European rivalry quite like this one, and it assuredly can’t last much longer. So, we should enjoy it while we have it.
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