French flair sees off battling Ireland

France U-20 24 Ireland U-20 13

An impressive French side handed Eric Elwood his first defeat since he took on the Ireland U-20 coaching job last season.

The French suffered a blow before kick-off when their centre Mathieu Bastareaud had to cry off with a calf injury. The Stade Francais club man, so devastating against Scotland last week, was replaced by Charles Gimenez of Toulouse.

Keen to impress after failing to score a try in their 6-0 defeat of Italy seven days ago, Ireland played a high tempo game and comfortably lived with the hosts for the first 40 minutes.

Elwood’s side conceded the first points of the match in the 14th minute.

French scrum half Thierry Lacrampe was allowed too much space in midfield and he sniped over from 10 metres out.

His half-back partner Mathieu Belie converted for 7-0 but Ireland struck back just four minutes later.

An excellent move ended with Queen’s University flyer Chris Cochrane racing in off his left wing to score under the posts. Martin Dufficy, Ireland’s only scorer against Italy, added the extras to tie the game.

France moved 14-7 ahead in the 24th-minute when Vincent Mehn passed to Gimenez and the outside centre muscled over from five metres.

Belie once again converted as France began to dominate before the break.

But a well-struck 32nd-minute penalty from Dufficy kept Ireland in touch, as they trailed 14-10 at half time.

The French, managed by Philippe Sella, began the second half brightly and were camped in the Irish 22 for a long period.

Ireland relieved the pressure through Stephen Douglas and Paul Ryan but the introduction of Clermont Auvergne’s Clement Ric bolstered the French scrum.

The game looked to have changed in Ireland’s favour in the 65th-minute when French prop Nicolas Agnesi was sin-binned and Dufficy landed the subsequent penalty kick for a 14-13 scoreline.

But the French rallied superbly to score 10 points without replying in the closing 15 minutes.

Some ill-discipline at the breakdown cost Ireland dearly as Belie fired over an excellent penalty in the 74th-minute for 17-13.

France then drove home the final nail in the coffin, six minutes later, when a simple case of numbers out wide saw the fleet-footed Wesley Fofana charge over with Belie’s conversion putting his side out of sight.

FRANCE: J Dumora; V Mehn, C Gimenez, Y David, W Fofana; M Belie, T Lacrampe; N Agnesi, C Maynadier, K Kervarec, Y Maestri (capt), A Jaulhac, Y Vivalda, A Chollon, R Lakafia.

Replacements: R Olive, C Ric, J-B Roidot, A Loubiere, A Tomas, C Coll (Perpignan).

IRELAND: S Scanlon (UCC/Munster); D Kearney (Lansdowne/Leinster), E O’Malley (Old Belvedere/Leinster), E Sheridan (Lansdowne/Leinster), C Cochrane (Queen’s U/Ulster); M Dufficy (Dublin University/Leinster), D Moore (Blackrock/Leinster); P Karayiannis (Queen’s U/Ulster), S Douglas (Ballymena/Ulster), B Barclay (UCD/Leinster), D Nolan (Galwegians/Connacht), E Sheriff (Lansdowne/Leinster), K Essex (UL Bohs/Munster), P Ryan (Blackrock/Leinster) (capt), P Mallon (Lansdowne/Leinster).

Replacements: J Harris-Wright (Greystones/Leinster), S Archer (UCC/Munster), J Sandford (Queen’s U/Ulster), I Nagle (UCC/Munster), K Greene (St. Mary’s/Leinster), I Madigan (Blackrock/Leinster), C Cleary (Greystones/Leinster).

Referee: C Passacantando (Italy).