Ireland trail France at the break

Ireland 0, France 27 (half-time)

Ireland struggled to stay with a French team who showed some superb power and accuracy both on attack and defence to go into half-time with an imposing 27-0 lead.

Olivier Magne scored one try and helped create the second for Christophe Dominici, while number eight Imanol Harinordoquy added a third and Frederic Michalak kicked three conversions and two penalties.

Ireland had few chances to mount attacks in the face of the smothering French defence, and spoilt what they did have with errors or the concession of penalties.

Victor Costello gave away a soft penalty at a scrum just on the 20-minute mark, failing to maintain his binding at a defensive scrum and Michalak kicked the three points.

The number eight tried to make amends in the 23rd minute when he dived down the blindside looking for a try but Fabien Galthie and Christophe Dominici got across to push him out.

In the 25th minute O’Driscoll responded to the lack of any backline structure by kicking cleverly into the right-hand corner for Shane Horgan but Dominici recovered to put the ball out.

From the resulting lineout Ireland conceded a soft penalty and France relieved the pressure.

Just before the half-hour mark Ireland were rocked again as O’Gara’s pass was put down by Malcolm O’Kelly and Magne pounced on the loose ball.

He fed Betsen, who then put Dominici in to easily outpace Horgan and score France’s second try.

The third try came after 32 minutes, this time Harinordoquy finishing off a move after Galthie darted off the base of the scrum and passed for Sylvain Marconnet in support, the prop then feeding the number eight.

Michalak converted again and the scoreline moved out to 24-0 as France took almost complete control of the match.

He added his second penalty two minutes before the break when the Irish midfield were caught offside to open up an ominous half-time lead.