A Six Nations of hope has become one of what might have beens

Damian Penaud of France scores his side's second try despite the tackle of Hugo Keenan of Ireland during the Guinness Six Nations Rugby Championship match. Picture: Brendan Moran/Sportsfile

The growing pains continue for Andy Farrell’s side but now they are bearing the burden of some unwanted history as they search for a first win of the 2021 Guinness Six Nations.

Ireland fell to consecutive defeats in the opening two rounds for the first time in Six Nations history, the first such poor start since the Five Nations of 1998, as an upwardly mobile France continued their winning start to the championship at Aviva Stadium yesterday afternoon.

A second consecutive defeat may have brought another losing bonus point following the 21-16 loss in Wales seven days earlier but while that indicates how little there has been between Ireland and their objectives it will not be of any comfort to head coach Farrell and his hopes of a strong start to his second year at the helm.

Tries in both halves, from skipper Charles Ollivon and wing Damian Penaud did the damage although replacement hooker Ronan Kelleher’s first Test try on 57 minutes and the conversion and a later penalty from replacement fly-half Ross Byrne gave Ireland hope. Yet France managed the endgame superbly to pick up a second win from two for Fabien Galthié’s young side.

For Ireland, it will be another review littered with what might have beens when the squad reconvenes on Thursday ahead of the trip to Italy on February 27. Against Wales, their efforts had been undermined by Peter O’Mahony’s early red card and the propensity to compound error with error, including that calamitous missed-touch penalty that denied a final drive for victory.

Back on home soil, there were similar frustrations as France gifted the home side the opportunity to gain a foothold in this contest with a 23rd-minute Bernard Le Roux yellow card and then seized the moment themselves when Ireland wasted it.

From a well-worked scoring opportunity, a mistimed pass from Hugo Keenan out wide to James Lowe gave the wing too much work to do and though he got over the tryline a foot had brushed the touchline. Within minutes of that try being ruled out, France were taking their chance, skipper Charles Ollivon finishing off a move sparked by scrum-half Antoine Dupont to move 5-3 in front before Le Roux returned from the naughty step.

By half-time, Matthieu Jalibert’s conversion and 39th-minute penalty had made it 10-3 to France and Ireland were chasing the game.

Matters deteriorated further after the interval, Ireland losing Billy Burns a minute after the restart to a Head Injury Assessment on his first Six Nations start in place of last week’s concussion victim Johnny Sexton.

Cian Healy and Sexton’s replacement as captain Iain Henderson followed for HIAs a minute later after clashing heads attempting to double-tackle Gregory Alldritt and though they both returned to the field, Burns did not.

France meanwhile were extending their lead, a defensive misread from Lowe in targeting Brice Dulin allowing him to feed spare man Penaud on the wing to grab his side’s second try of the game at 15-3.

Farrell will have been pleased by Ireland’s fight, evidenced by replacement hooker Ronan Kelleher’s 57th-minute try, converted by Burns’ replacement Ross Byrne, who added a penalty on 65 minutes to make things interesting 15-13. 

Yet Ireland then floundered as a less experienced French side displayed the better game management to close out the win as the home side huffed and puffed with little or nothing to show for their effort.

That is certainly the way Farrell saw it.

“I thought our set-piece was really good in the first half, there was one or two things in the second half,” the Ireland boss said. “What I also thought was good in the first half was we kept the ball in front of the forwards coming against a good defensive unit in France who are very good at making two-man hits and very dangerous with the ball on the floor regarding the jackler.

“We kept sending our forwards into some brick walls but look, at the same time, we had opportunities within that middle third to try and get the ball to the edge. Their wingers were obviously taking a chance coming in and jamming, and once or twice we fell into a trap on the edges and two men out got caught.

“So there were things that we could have done a little bit better and saved a bit of energy for what happened in that last couple of minutes in the long run.”

For Farrell, with a second home Six Nations loss on his record now, the way forward remains the same as he laid down the gauntlet to his players.

“Our approach and our attitude doesn’t change. I just said to the boys in the changing rooms there that we talk about the strength of the group and how close they are; we will see how strong we are now because we will show our true character now because it’s about making sure that for our next three games we are at our best and our approach doesn’t change.”