Title hopes dented as Ireland robbed at the death

IRELAND’S U20s face an uphill struggle to qualify for the semi-finals of the IRB Junior World Championships after suffering injury-time heartbreak in their opener against France in Rosario.

Allen Clarke’s charges can hold their heads high after a brave performance, but ultimately they should have left the home of Argentine football club Newells Old Boys with a draw at least.

It looked like heading that way when Simon Zebo popped up at the end of a sublime move to score in the 80th minute before James McKinney held his nerve to deliver the equalising conversion from the touchline.

With stoppage time to play, Ireland looked in control of their destiny, but Noel Reid – the man who created Zebo’s try – sliced his kick into touch on the full and Ireland conceded a penalty from the lineout and Gilles slotted over five minutes into overtime with the full-time whistle arriving moments later.

With England running out comfortable, bonus-point winners over hosts Argentina in the second game, Ireland now need to win well against the old enemy on Wednesday if they are to make the last four.

Despite the outcome, Clarke believes his side can clinch a semi-final berth.

“We’re disappointed with the result,” he said. “There was no lack of effort but there are aspects of our game that we need to improve upon and we’re aware of that. We’ve a changing room that’s hurting at the moment, but the group is still alive – very much alive – but we’ve no option now but to focus on winning our next game.

“That’s within our ability.

“We felt we got hit a little bit around our close quarter defence, around our kick chase and the management of the game in the right areas of the field.

“We scored and made it 22-22 with a fantastic touchline conversion and the momentum was with us but we ended up conceding a penalty after two or three consecutive errors. That hurts.”

Ireland started the game brightly but a combination of indiscipline at the breakdown and handling errors let them down and with referee Jaco Peyper frequently whistling them up, French fly-half Jean Marc Doussain kicked his side into a 12-6 lead at the break.

McKinney kicked both of Ireland’s first-half penalties and the Ulster fly-half slotted over three unanswered kicks as Ireland took the lead going into the final quarter.

France sent on some bruising reinforcements and replacement Bosch engineered some good field position for his forwards to pummel the Irish line. The defence was strong, but eventually Les Bleus found a chink and Antoine Erbani crashed over.

Bosch added a conversion and then kicked a penalty to extend his side’s lead to seven only for Reid to counter from inside his own half, play a one-two with Andrew Conway before releasing Eoin Griffin, who was held up short.

A quick recycle saw Reid send Zebo over in the corner and McKinney kept his nerve to convert. Alas, it wasn’t to be the final act as Bosch put a dent in Irish ambitions, a fact Rhys Ruddock acknowledged.

“It’s definitely more difficult now,” Ruddock said. “But we’re still playing to get out of our group and we know we just have to play a lot better to do that come England. We just feel we were a bit flat today and don’t feel we’ve done ourselves justice and this squad justice.”

Scorers for France: JM Doussain 4 pens, A Erbin 1 try, G Bosch 2 pens, 1 con.

Scorers for Ireland: J McKinney 5 pens, 1 con, S Zebo 1 try.

IRELAND: A Conway; D Hudson (N Reid 70), E Griffin, N Spence, S Zebo; J McKinney, J Cooney (M Heaney 76); J O’Connell, N Annett (D Doyle 73), S Maguire (B Cagney 73); D O’Callaghan, B Marshall (B Hayes 73); R Ruddock, D Ryan, P Butler.

FRANCE: B Dulin; C Lagain, R Lamerat, R Barrthelemy (M Lamoulie 80), J Sinzelle; JM Doussain (G Bosch 69), A Bales; X Chiocci, M Ivaldi (capt) (K Le Guen 76), S Abadie (E Ben Arous 52); J Souza (K Gimeno 52), G Often; A Roulin (R Taofifenua 52), T Molcard; A Erbin.

Referee: J Peyper (South Africa).