Five things we learned from Ireland’s comprehensive Six Nations defeat to France

France punish Ireland’s indiscipline where it hurts

Louis Bielle-Biarrey celebrates scoring France's first try during the Six Nations match against Ireland at the Aviva Stadium. Photograph: Liam McBurney/PA Wire

When Ireland lock Joe McCarthy pulled back French fullback Thomas Ramos and was sent to the sin bin after 20 minutes it did not take the French team long to capitalise on the Irish player’s misjudgment and their extra man.

From the penalty awarded to them France kicked to touch to set up an attacking lineout down in the Irish corner. Captain Antoine Dupont quickly got his hands on the ball and passed out to his left wing Louis Bielle-Biarrey, who scorched off with ball in hand to score his seventh try in seven games for France.

To say the score was fast is an understatement. The time it took from the penalty being awarded by Australian referee Angus Gardner to the scoring of the try was inside one minute and brought into sharp relief just how costly it was to have a player in the bin (twice) against a team as cut-throat team like France.

French confidence soared after Ireland drew blank from early dominance

Ireland's Dan Sheehan is tackled by France's Jean-Baptiste Gros and Peato Mauvaka. Photograph: Ben Brady/Inpho

One of the truisms of team sport is if you do not pick up the points or the goals when you are in a period of complete dominance, then the match can very easily come back to bite.

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So, Ireland opened against France playing front-foot rugby and dominating the tempo, the territory and the possession. The opening phase looked like the Ireland team that had beaten the Springboks in the last Rugby World Cup were back. Then in a quick turnaround, France hit back, McCarthy was binned and it was France not Ireland that got the first points on the scoreboard against the run of play.

Whether Ireland scoring during that dominant period would have made a difference to the final outcome, who knows. But it did give France the confidence of knowing that their defence would hold even as Ireland threw everything they had at them.

Opinions differ greatly over incident leading to Antoine Dupont’s injury

French captain Antoine Dupont is helped off the field after picking up a knee injury in the first half. Photograph: David Rogers/Getty Images

To some ears Gardner might have come across as overly chatty during the match – unless you were Irish captain Caelan Doris.

Gardner spoke to stand-in captain Grégory Alldritt as Dupont was being taken off with what looked like a serious knee injury, confirmed on Sunday as a cruciate. Gardner basically said to Alldritt – with Doris also listening in – that rugby is a game where accidents happen and that while it was very unfortunate to have lost their captain to injury it is part of the game, a rugby incident. He also said it had been reviewed and was satisfied that nothing dangerous or careless had happened during the breakdown scuffle in which Dupont picked up the injury.

It was interesting then to see how the French management saw it when coach Fabien Galthié branded the incident “reprehensible” after the match and cited Tadhg Beirne and Andrew Porter. Quite a divergence of opinion.

France’s second-half scoring spree left Ireland for dead

Damian Penaud runs away from Ireland's Sam Prendergast to score France's fifth try and complete an unanswered scoring spree of 34 points by the visiting team. Photograph: David Rogers/Getty Images

Sam Prendergast converted Dan Sheehan’s second-half try in the 43rd minute of the match. The next score Ireland got was from Cian Healy in the 77th minute. That represented a 34-minute scoring wilderness during which Ireland were unable to get any points on the board. But as that was happening, or, not happening France were busy at work.

After Prendergast’s kick Paul Boudehent scored a try on 46 minutes, which was converted by Ramos. On 49 minutes Bielle-Biarrey touched down and Ramos converted. Ramos then kicked a penalty before Oscar Jegou scored another try, which Ramos converted. Ramos then kicked a penalty before Damian Penaud scored a try and Ramos converted on 74 minutes. In all France scored 34 points which went unanswered before Healy picked up the ball and touched down for Ireland. Fatal.

France’s split personalities make light of any difficulties

Oscar Jegou scores France's fourth try against Ireland. Photograph: David Rogers/Getty Images

There was a point in Ireland’s defeat to France when the decision of the French management to go with seven forwards and one back on the bench in a 7-1 split seemed to be backfiring.

Outside centre Pierre-Louis Barassi left the pitch with a head injury, while Maxime Lucu had already come on for the injured Antoine Dupont. It looked then like the gamble was going to work against them.

Instead, La Rochelle backrow forward Oscar Jegou stepped into the backline at 13 and simply played what was in front of him. Boudehent, who lined out at openside flanker, also had previous history of playing in the centre. But Jegou rounded off a brilliant cameo playing out of position by diving in low and underneath Beirne to score a try in the 58th minute of the match. Backfield players did get injured and had to leave the pitch, but France adjusted did not fall apart.