Head coach Paul Cunningham rues unforced errors

Ireland Clubs 12 French Clubs 37: Ireland’s Club team head coach Paul Cunningham was left ruing two unforced errors as France Fédérale left the Aviva with a 25-point victory.

The home side saw backrow Paul Pritchard maul over on eight minutes but trailed 20-5 at the break after errors gave France a converted five-metre scrum and an intercept try.

Mark Roche replied after the restart but a sin-binning for Stephen Mullholland saw further French tries from captain Julien Capdeillayre and Guillaume Geledan to kill the game off.

“It was a tough physical game and it was obviously going to be the case,” said Cunningham. “If we hadn’t coughed up the 14 points in the first-half, it’s anybody’s game. We were eight points down around 10 minutes into the second half and again we coughed up two quick ones. We coughed up two tries in terms of the interception and a basic error and that made life hard for us. The lads have given everything they had and showed a lot of ability out there, but we made it difficult for ourselves.”

France had a number of players who were professionals last year, while Clontarf’s Michael McGrath made the step up from last year’s club team to the Leinster set up.

“There is a lot of good players in AIL rugby. There is no question about that,” saidCunningham. “Are a lot of them capable of playing into the next level? I think they are but that comes with a bit of luck, getting an opportunity and taking the opportunity when it does arise. Hopefully for some of them, it might.”

Scorers for Ireland: Tries: P Pritchard, M Roche. Con: D Lyons

Scorers for France: Tries: L Levy, S Bonvalot, J Capdeillayre, Guillaume Geledan. Con: J Lavie (4). Pen: J Lavie (2), L Levy (1).

IRELAND: D Riordan (Old Belvedere); S Coughlan (Blackrock), M Roche (Lansdowne), M D’Arcy (Clontarf), Kevin McGrath (Skerries); D Lyons (Cork Con), A Lloyd (Dublin University); I Prendiville (Lansdowne), A O’Driscoll (Cork Con), G Sweeney (Cork Con); S Gardner (Lansdowne), F Walsh (Terenure); S Mulholland (Ballymena), P Pritchard (Ballynahinch), J Slattery (Old Belvedere).

Replacements: E Rossiter (Garryowen), A Boland (Lansdowne), P O’Shea (Garryowen), C Smyth (Ballymena), S Walsh (Cashel), G Hurley (Cork Con), S Murphy (UCD), S O’Neill (Terenure College).

FRANCE: L Levy; P Lafitte, T Anies, K Burgaud, S Bonvalot; J Lavie, P Dubert, M Curie, P Rodriguez, N Kwarazfelia; B Senac, A Potente; G Geledan, D Costanzo, J Capdeillayre (capt).

Replacements: T Berhabe, V Carrat, Kevin Kahn, J-B Cros, A Poujol, R Lamarque, J-B Lafite, M Cossia.

Referee: Eddie Hogan O’Connell.