World Cup dream buried in Paris

Ireland 7 England 40

In hindsight, the looming presence of the Parc des Princes sitting on the shoulder of the Stade Jean Bouin wasn’t the most encouraging of portents on an evening when Ireland’s women had their hopes of a first World Cup final appearance ruthlessly dashed.

The Parc was, for the bones of three decades, a biannual graveyard for Irish rugby teams and, in truth, the manner of this comprehensive defeat to a superb English side was very much in keeping with so many of those lopsided losses back in the day.