France v Ireland: The decisive moments
Ireland's Conor Murray dejected after the game
Wales’ victory over Scotland in Cardiff half-an-hour before kick-off in Saint-Denis, over 400 miles and a Channel crossing away, focused a certain extra pressure on the two teams at Stade de France - the winner of Saturday’s second Six Match match would be the last nation standing in this year’s Grand Slam hunt.
Then the 80,000 crowd did their bit for the atmosphere, with two rousing anthems filling the stadium.
Here are four decisive moments from the match that followed.
There was scarcely time to breathe in a pulsating opening period. What should have been a routine exit move from Romain Ntamack’s kick-off quickly turned into Ireland’s nightmare opening, as they found themselves immediately behind the eight-ball.
Jamison Gibson-Park’s clearance to touch was shorter than he would have wanted, and Antoine Dupont gave the defence no time to settle, taking a quick lineout. Yoram Moefana, in his fourth international and second start, stepped and offloaded, Uini Atonio barrelled into the 22, taking defenders with him.
The ball was worked right, and Romain Ntamack offloaded in the tackle to where he knew Dupont would be for the run in. The crowd had set the tone before the match. France’s first-minute try took it up, as they had promised in the week, a notch.
France had by far the better of almost all the opening half, but Mack Hansen made the most of fullback Melvyn Jaminet’s too-casual approach to Ireland’s second restart after he had kicked the hosts into an early 10-0 lead. Hansen should have been pressuring Jaminet for the ball; instead, with the Frenchman in another timezone, he was shown a clear path to the line and he needed no second invitation. Unfortunately for Ireland, it was a timely reminder to the French that the match - less than 10 minutes old at the time - was far from over. If it wasn’t, the sound of Fields of Athenry ringing round Stade de France seconds later surely was.
Hansen’s eighth-minute try had been the high mark of Ireland’s first 40. France proceeded to bludgeon them into submission at the breakdown, and Jaminet kicked the penalties that they inevitably conceded as the pressure told. Les Bleus’ scrum even marched the Irish back 10m shortly before halftime to rub dominant salt into battered Irish wounds.
But French brains were still in the dressing room as Ireland roared back after conceding an early penalty, with Josh van der Flier scoring in the 45th minute, and Gibson-Park darting through a gap in the French defence so large it had developed mass in the 50th to bring the visitors back to within a single point with half-and-hour to play.
Prop Cyril Baille extended France’s lead with a try three minutes later - but Ireland were very much back in the game.
France had largely played against accepted type for most of the game, pulverising Irish hopes rather than slicing them. There were flashes - Dupont’s try, and his long, perfect pass to Penaud for some winger magic in the first half, are standout moments. But, in the main they were content to batter Ireland off the ball, and overwhelm their set-piece while ice-cool captain Dupont repeatedly pointed to the posts when the chances were offered, letting Jaminet do the rest. But with three minutes to go, and with three points between the sides, France smashed their way back into the Irish 22 one more time. Under penalty advantage, France thought they had sealed the win when Jaminet raced over, but Ireland’s replacement hooker Dan Sheehan, exhausted by 55 minutes of bruising rugby, busted everything to get an arm under the ball.
A converted try then would have put France 10 clear with time fast running out. As it was, the fullback, denied a five-pointer, slotted the penalty to take the hosts six points clear. Ireland still had a shot. It turned out to be one last defiant roar in the dark, however. Ireland were unable to profit from their final million-to-one shot his try-saving heroics had given them, kicking the ball away needlessly with seconds remaining, allowing France to run down the clock.
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