France are formidable, but beatable
The last and only time an Irish team won at the stadium in St Denis was ten years ago, when Brian O’Driscoll scored his memorable hat-trick of tries. None of their predecessors prevailed over the French when matches were staged in the Parc des Princes – the previous victory for an Irish side came in the old Stade Colombes in 1972, when not a single member of today’s squad was even born.
Ireland have beaten France in Paris only once in the lifetime of the current players and three of them will be back in the Stade this evening to relive the memory. It will always have especially happy memories for O’Driscoll, but Ronan O’Gara and John Hayes were there too.
That leaves a large contingent of outstanding Irish rugby players with a significant gap in their CV and it’s a burning desire to rectify that omission which will assuredly spur today’s side on to something very special. Nothing less will suffice if the Paris bogey is to be laid once again.
“These are the little things that we as a squad want to continually attempt to pick off, these victories we haven’t tasted before,” says O’Driscoll. “It would mean a lot to the guys and would be good for this competition. You’d be silly to look beyond that. All it is is another game in the Six Nations, an obstacle in the way to a common goal.”
That is the captain’s way of putting a cap on the expectation that the supporters now place in their Grand Slam heroes. It’s a natural reaction to all that was achieved in 2009 and management and squad must live with it; there is no denying either that what Munster and Leinster have done on their Heineken Cup travels in France has also boosted player confidence and people’s belief in their teams.
O’Driscoll makes no attempt to diminish the importance of those results where the national cause is concerned: “As much as I have said a lot of guys haven’t won internationals over here, a lot of guys have won a lot of European Cup games over the years in France.
“So they are aware of coming into difficult environments and playing well and doing what it takes to silence or get the better of the home opposition, maybe a combination of the two. It will be no different because it’s at a national level tomorrow, we’ll be going out with the same attitude as people do with their provinces and their clubs.”
However, there’s no use trying to conceal the fact that Paris is a distinctly unhappy hunting ground for Irish teams. Since the draw was made everyone has pointed to the clash with Les Bleus as the likely end to Ireland’s magnificent run of successes.
That remains the consensus and when you look at a French team blessed with a centre partnership of the massive Mathie Bastareaud and the brilliant Yannick Jauzion, props of the quality of Nicolas Mas and Thomas Domingo, the brilliant back-row of Fulgence Ouedraogo, skipper Thierry Dusautoir and Imanol Harinordoquy, with our 2007 Croke Park nemesis Vincent Clerc substituting for the injured Aurelien Rougerie, you have to acknowledge the talent coach Mark Lièvremont has at his disposal.
At the same time, let nobody run away with the idea that this is a French team of all the talents. Full-back Clement Poitrenaud, new left wing Alex Palisson, half-backs Jean Trinh-Duc and Morgan Parra and the second-row pair Philippe Pape and Lionel Nallet, are all familiar to Irish fans and are unlikely to scare anybody unduly.
Even if Declan Kidney rightly realises that today’s game is on an even larger scale than, say, Perpignan v Munster, the results of our teams in Europe still mean a huge amount to the national team’s morale.
“It is a higher challenge than bringing Munster teams over here for Heineken Cup games,” said Declan Kidney. “If you’re not excited about this one, there’s no reason for you to be here. It’s probably the ultimate challenge in Six Nations rugby – what is it, they’ve lost two home matches in nine years?
“There are not too many sides have achieved anything next or near that. They present us with our biggest challenge and we’ll have a go at it tomorrow and give it our best shot.”
If they do so, it could well be yet another great day for Irish rugby. We may not be the finished article just yet but neither, I am convinced, are France. They are beatable, even in their own backyard, as we may well see this evening.
CONNECT WITH US TODAY
Be the first to know the latest news and updates
