Ireland 22 France 26:Two late converted tries put a gloss on what was a matt performance for about 50 minutes of this clash at the Aviva stadium. Ireland started and finished powerfully but the rustiness was very much in evidence, with France far more authoritative in possession and boasting a sharper cutting edge.
Kidney’s primary concerns though in the aftermath will be about the injuries to Cian Healy and a particularly nasty looking one to the unfortunate Felix Jones that could well threaten his participation in the World Cup.
The defeat – Ireland’s third straight loss in the warm-up games – is less worrying than some of the individual performances. The home side’s back play was lateral and easily snuffed out by the French drift and an aggressive and vigilant Aurelien Rougerie at outside centre.
The one silver lining on a largely cloudy afternoon in this respect was the late cameo by replacement Luke Fitzgerald. He showed character as well as his latent talent to produce eye-catching runs and was a catalyst for Ireland’s late flourish.
There were a number of excellent individual displays among the general mediocrity: Jamie Heaslip was immense with Paul O’Connell and Seán O’Brien not far behind, while Andrew Trimble ran powerfully on limited possession. The scrum and lineout functioned well but the general unit skills, the patterns lacked precision and fluidity: it was akin to jarring gears in a car.
It may come with game time but with Monday’s squad announcement looming and just one more preparatory match against England next weekend, Kidney might prefer his players and the team dynamic were a little further down the road to the quality of performance that it within their compass.
The first half was characterised by a remarkable transformation in territorial domination, possession and ultimately reflected on the scoreboard. Ireland started impressively, using the full expanse of the pitch, employing their primary ball carriers to try and punch holes closer in while seeing if they could get around the corner out wide.
However while the application was admirable the accuracy of the execution was patchy. Ireland’s passing was careless at times, putting themselves under unnecessary pressure. Another concern was that the back play was far too lateral, players shifting on ball miles behind the gain line without fixing any defenders.
On two or three occasions Keith Earls received possession two yards from the touchline with three Frenchman barring his passage. France watched Ireland pass and just drifted casually to the last green shirt.
It took a typically robust carry from O’Brien – he flattened David Skrela as the Frenchman tried to make a tackle – and raced into the visitors’ 22. It gave Ireland the field position from which Healy, 90 seconds later, muscled his way over on the short side of a ruck two metres from the French line.
Sexton, who had earlier kicked a penalty, failed with the difficult conversion but 8-0 was a minimum return for Ireland’s dominance.
Gradually though a spiralling error rate began to pockmark the home team’s patterns; some crass, many just careless.
Invited back into the contest, the French gratefully accepted. Irish indiscipline was becoming a problem as much as the inaccuracy. French scrumhalf Morgan Parra kicked a penalty and then Francois Trinh Duc, on as a 10th minute replacement for Skrela, dropped a magnificent long range goal after a loose clearance by Tomás O’Leary. Mr Momentum had changed jerseys.
Ireland’s concession of a try soon after will really annoy defence coach Les Kiss as it came off first phase. The home defence was caught slightly narrow and despite a fine Gordon D’Arcy tackle, Aurelien Rougerie had broken the line and Cedric Heymans ran a sumptuous inside trail to race under the posts. No one spotted his change of angle.
Parra converted and tagged on a penalty just before the interval, the byproduct of yet another Irish error to give the visitors a 16-8 lead at the interval. If the home supporters were hoping that Ireland would emerge with a pep in their step after a half-time recalibration they were to be sorely disappointed.
The home side conceded another three points through the boot of Parra and then O’Leary’s looping pass from a move butchered at the base of a scrum was intercepted by Trinh Duc who crossed for France’s second try to nudge the visitors out to 26-8: Ireland had not scored since the 10th minute of the match.
The home side picked up the tempo, helped by the introduction of several replacements, but they still struggled to create a definitive breach, the closest they came was when Earls tried to throw a flip pass to O’Driscoll that would have allowed the Irish captain to scoot over in the corner: instead it went high and into touch.
The afternoon got appreciably worse when the luckless Jones landed awkwardly and looked to badly damage his leg in the process. D’Arcy, playing his first match following ankle surgery, had just been replaced by Ronan O’Gara with Jonathan Sexton moving to centre before Fitzgerald came on.
Everything Ireland tried to construct all afternoon looked laboured and pedestrian for the most part and so it wasn’t a surprise that a second try for the home team came from a wonderful slaloming run from Fitzgerald; an unstructured gallop after picking up a loose ball. Grounded just short of the line, Sexton following up forced his way over and O’Gara added the conversion.
Fitzgerald completed a remarkable late cameo with a beautiful hard line from an inside pop pass that took Ireland into the shadow of the French posts and a few seconds later the outstanding O’Brien, bounced the umpteenth would-be tackler to force his way over. O’Gara again converted. It was a gallant finish but won’t camouflage a perplexing afternoon for the home team.
Scoring sequence:2 mins: Sexton penalty, 3-0; 8: Healy try, 8-0; 25: Parra penalty, 8-3; 27: Trinh Duc drop goal, 8-6; Heymans try, Parra conversion, 8-13; 38: Parra penalty, 8-16. Half-time: 8-16. 44: Parra penalty, 8-19; 48: Trinh Duc try, Parra conversion, 8-26; 72: Sexton try, O'Gara conversion, 15-26; 80: O'Brien try, O'Gara conversion, 22-26.
Ireland:F Jones (Munster); A Trimble (Ulster), B O'Driscoll (Leinster, capt), G D'Arcy (Leinster), K Earls (Munster); J Sexton (Leinster), T O'Leary (Munster); C Healy (Leinster), R Best (Ulster), M Ross (Leinster); D O'Callaghan (Munster), P O'Connell (Munster); S O'Brien (Leinster), S Jennings (Leinster), J Heaslip (Leinster). Replacements:T Court (Ulster) for Healy 50 mins; E Reddan (Leinster) for O'Leary 53 mins; J Flannery (Munster) for Best 60 mins; S Ferris (Ulster) 60 mins; R O'Gara (Munster) for D'Arcy 66 mins; L Fitzgerald (Leinster) for Jones 68 mins; M McCarthy (Connacht) for O'Callaghan 75 mins.
France:C Heymans (Toulouse); M Medard (Toulouse), A Rougerie (Clermont Auvergne), F Estebanez (Racing Metro 92), A Palisson (Toulon); D Skrela (Toulouse); JB Poux (Toulouse), D Szarzewski (Stade Francais), N Mas (Perpignan); P Pape (Stade Francais), L Nallet (Racing Metro 92, capt); F Quedraogo (Montpellier), J Bonnaire (Clermont Auvergne), L Picamoles (Toulouse). Replacements:F Trinh-Duc (Montpellier) for Skrela 10 mins; F Barcella (Biarritz Olympique) for Poux half-time; G Guirado (Perpignan) for Szarzewski 50 mins; J Pierre (Clermont Auvergne) for Pape 60 mins; V Clerc (Toulouse) for Rougerie 69 mins; D Yachvili (Biarritz Olympique) for Parra 78 mins.
Referee:Craig Joubert (South Africa).
