Finally, an end to the misery

AT long last, and after they hadput themselves in a situation where another Paris humiliation looked likely, this Irish team finally rediscovered its heart and soul at the Stade de France on Saturday.

After falling 26-6 behind in the 52nd minute, the floodgates might well have opened but, helped enormously by a generous penalty try decision by Welsh referee Nigel Owens, they stormed back into the game and were within a seven pointer of a famous win. Indeed, Ireland had forced a line-out on their own throw on the French line when the final whistle came a second too soon.

How ironic, too, that it was Vincent Clerc, so often before the scourge of the Irish and wasn’t included in the original French selection, who ran in a hat-trick of tries in the opening half. Clerc’s undoubted opportunism, a few bad turnovers by the Irish and the failure of Geordan Murphy, especially, and one or two other Irish defenders to deal with the threat, combined to put the French 19-6 ahead at the break.