Irish players no longer dream of Paris wins

There was a point in the Irish rugby timeline when even the idea of beating France in Paris was outside the logic of all but the criminally optimistic.

Several generations of men who donned the green jersey with distinction and achieved much in their illustrious Test careers never experienced victory in the French capital. So by the time the millennium came around, there was little or no belief in those that travelled to Paris that they would return with anything but a carton of duty-free cigarettes and the bitter, inevitable taste of defeat.

Current Ireland forwards coach Simon Easterby was in the class of 2000 who bucked the trend, ending a 28-year run of Five Nations defeats in France with an inaugural Six Nations win at Stade de France that changed the mindset and gave all future Irish sides the confidence and belief that victory was not just possible but achievable.

Easterby will be in the coaches’ box at Stade de France this afternoon alongside Joe Schmidt as the head coach tries to end another long-standing and unenviable record by recording back-to-back wins in Paris for the first time since 1928.

Ireland have not lost here since 2010, drawing their visit in 2012 and capturing the championship two years ago with a 22-20 win. Indeed, they have not been beaten by France since the summer of 2011, when they went down at home in a pre-World Cup friendly. So there will be no lack of confidence that this group of players can achieve their goal today.

“Sixteen years — it’s a long time,” said Easterby yesterday after Ireland went through their final preparations with a captain’s run at Stade de France. “I think the success of ’09 and then the last couple of years, it’s a combination of things. It’s a combination of the quality of the players, I think we went through a period of coming close to winning things but we didn’t maybe have that mentality or killer instinct that the side has maybe had over the last couple of years.

“There probably was a period where we hadn’t won in Paris from 2000 to the time before. There has been a little bit of a shift in mentality, not just against the French, but other teams we may have struggled against in the past.

“That’s credit to the players and their drive and ambition. It’s not going to make it any easier coming here, but I think there’a confidence within the squad that if we get things right and prepare properly and prepare well, like we have done, we are going to be very, very competitive. In the past that might not have been the case.”

Ireland may be searching for their first victory of 2016 following an opening draw at home to Wales last Sunday, but given the position France find themselves in, there should be no fear in the hearts of those taking the field today.

Guy Noves’ first game in charge last Saturday was a victory but it was a hard-fought and fortunate 23-21 win over Italy that could easily have gone the visitors’ way. Given they were playing for a new coach, France were surprisingly lacklustre, particularly in defence, and Noves has made six changes to an already new-look side.

What has not changed is Les Bleus’ inability to put teams away with convincing victories at home — their last eight Tests at Stade de France, five of them wins, all decided by seven points or less.

No wonder Noves was wary of Ireland when he named his team on Thursday.

“We focused on our defensive form in the beginning of the week, especially as we know what is coming on Saturday and Ireland’s ability to hold the ball for long periods of time,” the French coach said. “We made sure the boys were aware of that, although they didn’t need us to tell them.

“We also reviewed our systems and tried to find a couple of weaknesses in our next opponents. The Irish were pretty impressive against Wales, this is top-level European rugby. They can switch styles of rugby at any time, they have an accurate kicking game. This will be a tough game for us, let’s hope it will be tough for them as well.”

It is bound to be tough. France have had a day’s extra rest over Ireland, they wish to avenge last October’s World Cup pool-deciding 24-9 loss in Cardiff, even though only three of today’s starting XV survive from that game four months ago, and for all their inadequacies they are not about to roll out the red carpet for Rory Best’s side today.

Plus Ireland have to put some elements of their house in order from last week if they are to beat the French for the fourth time in succession.

Their inconsistency over 80 minutes was again highlighted last week as they raced into a 13-0 against Wales after 28 minutes and then failed to score again until the 74th.

A repeat of the intensity, emotional and physical, displayed in that opening half-hour in Dublin would do very nicely in Paris but the key for Ireland will be to maintain it over 80-plus minutes.

“We had a lead and we let that slip a little bit and we’ve learned from that a bit, which we can hopefully bring into tomorrow,” said Easterby.

“Either side of that, if they get ahead we know how to get ourselves back into the game as we did against Argentina [in the World Cup quarter-final]. We got back within three points and had a chance to level it and we didn’t unfortunately, we didn’t take that [penalty] chance. You don’t want to be in that situation but you have to draw on experiences and those players on the pitch that know how to deal with those situations. You try hard to work and rectify those issues throughout the first half, whether that’s at half-time or leading into the end of the game, I think we have enough experience to be able to do that.”