Early French onslaught must be resisted

Time is a healer, they say, but have Ireland had enough hours, minutes and seconds to put right the wrongs of last Sunday’s effort and produce a performance against France tonight in Paris?

Forget the rancour surrounding the refereeing decisions that upset Ireland last weekend and last night provoked a strong statement from the International Rugby Board and Six Nations in defence of Wayne Barnes.

Those may have altered the course of the game, if not the outcome, but there certainly seems to be some obvious fixes on the training pitch at Carton House this week in the wake of that 23-21 defeat at the Aviva Stadium.

The Welsh players could scarcely believe their luck when they were presented with ball and space to propel their big and clever backs into attacking positions.

It made for a thrilling spectacle for neutrals, the nature of the tactic that led to a barnburner of a game, but Jonny Sexton and his Irish back line cannot afford a repeat tonight in Paris, where some equally physical and skilful specimens in the shape of the French three-quarter line lie in wait.

France got off to a characteristically tentative start to their Six Nations campaign against doughty Italy last Saturday, but while new coach Philippe Saint-André looked as if he was being made to endure a screeching violin recital by talentless eight-year-old beginners, his spirits were surely lifted by the virtuoso interventions delivered staccato-style by four very well-taken tries.

And with the likes of

Aurelien Rougerie, Julien Malzieu and Vincent Clerc clearly on song, and last weekend’s debutant try scorer Wesley Fofana warming to the task at inside centre, that French back line will get better as the season goes on.

So the thought of Ireland regularly kicking the ball to them and inviting them to attack is enough to make any Irish supporter shift uncomfortably their seats if they have not already frozen rigid to them in the expected sub-zero temperatures at Stade de France this evening.

As defence coach Les Kiss said yesterday, echoing what captain Paul O’Connell so rightly pointed out earlier in the week, such errors are going to be ruthlessly punished by this France team.

“Managing the game in terms of territory, having a bit more control of the decisions that we can control,” was Kiss’s reply when asked for areas to improve on. “There are some uncontrollables there but the things we can control, make sure that we make the strong decisions that put us in a position of strength rather than putting pressure back on ourselves.”

It seems we say this at the start of every new international campaign, be it a Six Nations, an autumn series or a World Cup, but Ireland have to cut out the individual errors following a sloppy opening performance. They failed to do so after a scare in Rome last February and handed France a win in Dublin that Marc Lievremont’s side barely deserved, especially when outscored three tries to two.

Perhaps, then, the World Cup experience is the one to tap into to instil the sense of purpose Ireland need to redeem themselves tonight. Last September, the Irish were lucky enough to face second-tier USA in their opening pool game and get the Test-match rust out of their systems (albeit after four warm-up defeats in August). The following week, few gave them hope against pool favourites and Tri Nations champions Australia, yet we know what happened there.

Things need to come right for Ireland in the same way they did at Eden Park against the Wallabies or it will be another miserable evening. It is going to be a tough night in a town that’s all too rarely painted green and despite making five changes to his side, Saint-André has hardly weakened his team in the process.

Morgan Parra replaces the injured Dimitri Yachvili at scrum-half in the only forced change and in doing so reunites the 2010 Grand Slam half-back partnership with Francois Trinh-Duc.

Jean-Baptiste Poux comes in at loosehead, having been France’s first choice there during the run to the World Cup final, Yohann Maestri is a big and mobile unit in the second row and there is not much left to be said about the back-row qualities of Imanol Harinordoquy. Both Maestri and Harinordoquy bring extra height to combat an Irish lineout that was one of the plus points in defeat to Wales and the new coach has also added some extra bite at the breakdown, where Italy asked plenty of questions.

If Ireland can stay accurate at ruck time they can get on top in this crucial area and tick another of the boxes on the list of basic essentials they need to get right.

Also key will be containing the expected French onslaught at the start of this game. All too often France have built up irretrievable leads and however good Irish play has been in chasing the game, it has never been enough. A strong, disciplined and smart start at Stade de France is therefore vital to Irish hopes. It may not be enough to win but it would at least give Declan Kidney’s side a fighting chance on that most inhospitable of foreign fields.