Ireland 22 France 26:BACK IN his tennis-playing pomp, Ivan Lendl admitted that if he took a fortnight's holidays, he'd have to practice every day for a fortnight afterwards to regain his normal feel for the ball. By contrast, John McEnroe could take a month off, pick up a racket and pretty much be where he was before his 'hols'. For Lendl, it would appear, read Ireland. For McEnroe, read France.
For all the talk of Irish rustiness – five of Saturday’s starting team were making their first appearance of the season – you couldn’t help but remind yourself that 13 of this French side were making their seasonal bow on Saturday, and 15 of them had done so a week before.
Furthermore, this was, after all, Ireland’s notional first-choice pack bar one enforced change, notional first-choice halfbacks and first-choice midfield, and they were at home and led 8-0 after a bright first 10 minutes. Indeed, they book-ended the contest with a further 14 points in the final eight minutes and so, for what it’s worth, they could take comfort in again finishing the game strongly.
But the problem was what happened in between. As Ireland lost their way with a surfeit of errors, the French, during one 22-minute spell, scored 26 unanswered points and were strutting around the Aviva Stadium as if they owned it – which they pretty much did.
The Irish performance wasn’t without its positives. That good start was founded on a much improved line-out – with more variety, movement and better darts from Rory Best to provide off-the-top ball for the backs – and a strong scrum, allied to much more efficient retention of the ball through the phases.
Cian Healy’s blindside rumble over Morgan Parra was fair reward for this after Seán O’Brien bulldozed through David Skrela – though unfortunately that also meant the early introduction of the vastly superior Francois Trinh-Duc.
But the good points merely highlighted the bad ones, namely much of the back play. Apart from Tomás O’Leary’s box kicks, the first time Jonathan Sexton kicked for territory was in the 53rd minute – his one previous kick in open play being a cross field chip for Andrew Trimble from just outside the 22. Hence France only had half a dozen lineouts in the entire match.
Ireland repeatedly opted to move the ball wide, even from inside their 22, which was fine and dandy up to a point. But almost everything was moved across the line in orthodox fashion, one to one to one, with ne’er a meaningful decoy or trailer or inside option in sight until it reached the wings. It didn’t ask nearly enough questions. France read it like an open book, simply drifting across and making their tackles.
Blindside wingers were rarely employed up the middle save for O’Leary feeding Trimble once early on. Only with the introduction of Eoin Reddan and Ronan O’Gara, and Sexton making a decent fist of inside centre, did Ireland vary the point of attack more.
Andrew Trimble set it up in midfield, and O’Driscoll straightened the line off the recycle though, not for the first time in the last three Saturdays, Ireland ran out of pitch. Heaslip and then Luke Fitzgerald, who added real bite with his pace, footwork and eye for space, were also launched up the middle. Consolation tries followed for Sexton and O’Brien.
Perhaps Ireland were keeping their powder dry. One sincerely hopes so. In the circumstances, it was no wonder that there was so little penetration from midfield or fullback – though given Felix Jones’ utterly cruel luck, the apparently unwanted Geordan Murphy could still give this backline an arsenal of strike moves.
The midfield was also a little undone by the penetrative Rougerie-Cedric Heymans combination for the first French try. But Gordon D’Arcy was never likely to hit the ground running off his shortened pre-season, while Brian O’Driscoll knows his body and the game so well now that one can safely imagine him peaking where he needs to peak – in Auckland in game two against Australia.
Of more ongoing concern is the form of O’Leary, who is still a long way off 2009 pre-Lions vintage. In truth, his service looked sharper than in Murrayfield, and after teeing up Trinh-Duc for a mammoth drop goal with a wayward box kick, it was unfortunate that Trinh-Duc was again the beneficiary of O’Leary’s long infield pass after Heaslip had failed to locate him on the blindside, ironically after a very good scrum. But the introduction of Reddan palpably upped the tempo.
France undoubtedly eased off in the final 10 – evidence of this being Morgan Parra’s refusal to take a quick throw infield to Louis Picamoles despite there being no Irish player in sight. But under 12 minutes from time they moved a ball from left to right, Rougerie receiving the ball at depth with three players outside him in a line and another running a trailer behind them. It was a typically French attacking shape that Ireland never emulated.
Aside from O’Brien’s running – he takes the ball from depth and at pace like no other Irish forward – and Heaslip’s outstanding breakdown work, there was the determination of athleticism of Paul O’Connell and the work-rate of Cian Healy, though it looked as if he stayed on way too long.
Encouragingly, too, Stephen Ferris came through his first 20 minutes of rugby since January and could offer real impact possibilities in New Zealand. After his third cameo, touch wood, Jerry Flannery could offer even more. Admittedly, holding the ball at a back of a maul when under fairly vocal instructions from Craig Joubert to “use it” highlighted his lack of match hardness and, perhaps, something about the mental edge to Ireland’s performance.
This was a blow psychologically, and with a full house for next Saturday’s World Cup farewell, a biggie against England would be decidedly timely.
SCORING SEQUENCE: 3 mins: Sexton pen 3-0; 9: Healy try 8-0; 26 mins Parra try, 8-3; 28: Trinh-Duc drop goal 8-6; 30: Heymans try, Parra con 8-13; 39: Parra pen 8-16; (half-time 8-16); 44: Parra pen 8-19; 48: Trinh-Duc try, Parra con 8-26; 73: Sexton try, O’Gara con 15-26; 80 (+2): O’Brien try, O’Gara con 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, S Ferris (Ulster) for Jennings (both 60 mins), R O’Gara (Munster) for D’Arcy (67 mins), L Fitzgerald (Leinster) for Jones (69 mins), Mike McCarthy (Connacht) for O’Callaghan (76 mins).
FRANCE: C Heymans (Toulouse); M Médard (Toulouse), A Rougerie (Clermont Auvergne), F Estebanez (Racing Metro 92), A Palisson (Toulon); D Skrela (Toulouse), M Parra (Clermont Auvergne); J-B Poux (Toulouse), D Szarzewski (Stade Francais), N Mas (Perpignan); P Papé (Stade Francais), L Nallet (Racing Metro 92) (capt); F Ouedraogo (Montpellier), L Picamoles (Toulouse), J Bonnaire (Clermont Auvergne). Replacements: F Trinh-Duc (Montpellier) for Skrela (11 mins), F Barcella (Biarritz Olympique) for Poux (42 mins), G Guirado (Perpignan) for Szarzewski (50 mins), J Pierre (Clermont Auvergne) for Pape (60 mins), V Clerc (Toulouse) for Rougerie (70 mins), D Yachvili (Biarritz Olympique) for Parra (78 mins).
Referee: C Joubert (South Africa)
