Comment: Confident Ireland starting to feel at home in Paris

The world's No 1 team played with utter belief in Saint-Denis.

TON UP: Ireland's Peter O'Mahony and Scotland's Finn Russell. Picture: INPHO/Dan Sheridan

The smile on Caelan Doris’ face as Ireland’s Call drifted through all three tiers of the Stade de France said it all. It wasn’t a smirk, or a nervous nanosecond. It was the type of look that screamed utter confidence and a preternatural ease with where he was. It was a smile that spoke for Ireland.

Rarely has the nation had the chance to approach an event of this importance with anything like the serenity and belief that poured through the veins and arteries of Paris’ many arrondissements on Saturday. It was a vibe, but more than that. It was an understanding. An acceptance. This will be done.

There was no way this team was going to lose this. It just wasn’t entertained. The only affront to the chorus all week had been Gregor Townsend and his Scottish players. Them and the odd vox pop from a Tartan-clad supporter. They were lone voices, default declarations of intent that turned precisely no-one’s heads.

But this?

Did anyone see this? A six-try sweep past – and let’s not forget this – a side ranked fifth in the world and fighting for their lives at this World Cup? There may have been one or two brave souls who predicted as much, but we’ll need written proof if there were. Signed, dated and witnessed, please.

Ireland’s intent was stamped on the first seconds, when Garry Ringrose hurtled through to tackle Jamie Ritchie and Peter O’Mahony, on the occasion of his 100th cap for his country, threw himself at an Ali Price clearance kick. Neither made contact but they were snapshots emblematic of the hunger and work rate to come.

The game was 10 seconds short of the two-minute mark when James Lowe claimed Ireland’s first try. It was a beautiful waltz of a thing, a fluid dreamlike operation whose nuts and bolts were fitted and tightened over hours, days and weeks of practise and away from prying eyes. Others would follow, finished off by Hugo Keenan, Dan Sheehan and Garry Ringrose.

Now consider that Stuart McCloskey, playing his first competitive rugby since his run against Bayonne in late August, was integral to Keenan’s first. And that Jamison Gibson-Park, a scrum-half, was moonlighting as a winger when making a crucial contribution to Sheehan’s. This is next-gen stuff.

This was the rugby Ireland had played last summer in securing that series win against the All Blacks in rugby’s Mordor. The kind of attacking verve that has been missing for much of 2023, even as they went about putting a run of 16 games unbeaten under their belts prior to this Pool B end point. What a time to bring it.

Maybe the hardest thing to stomach for the Scots was Ireland’s third score, after 17 minutes, when Iain Henderson squirmed a hand over the line after a series of pick and goes. Ireland were going around them and through them. This was a dyke riddled with holes after less than a quarter of rugby.

The temptation will be to roll our eyes and ask condescending questions of the Scots. Did Blair Kinghorn really declare definitively that Ireland’s winning run would end here, now? What now after Jamie Ritchie said they wouldn’t die wondering? Sent home tae think again, but where would you start?

Old failings cost them here.

This brings to nine the number of games they have lost in a row to their Celtic cousins. Go back through the previous eight and you’ll see too many tries conceded in too quick a time and a failure to make the most of the chances created. The game was lost here when Ireland scored their second and third five-pointers inside six first-half minutes.

Or maybe it was earlier. Maybe it was that period after Lowe's opening try when they huffed and puffed but couldn’t blow Ireland’s house down. When Ollie Smith ignored a gaping hole on Ireland’s right flank and turned inside to another line of green. They did the same on the opening weekend against the Springboks.

Ireland made maybe half-a-dozen visits to the Scottish 22 in the first period and came away with 26 points. Scotland were inside the Irish 22 at least three times in that 40 minutes and managed precisely nothing. Not for the first time, Townsend's team found itself chasing a belated hurrah, a moral victory in the face of defeat.

It took them over an hour to rage against the dying of the light. Ireland had already pulled down the shutters by taking Johnny Sexton off after 45 minutes and five forwards shortly after. Sensational as this was for the hour that mattered, they are no further along than Irish teams before them.

That quarter-final bogey needs addressing next Saturday. The best back-to-back performances this team has managed were the second and third Tests in Dunedin and Wellington. Seven days separated those games. Another seven days – and the All Blacks - now stand between Ireland, a world record equalling 18th straight win and a place in a World Cup semi-final.

Paris felt like Ireland's city again today. It's beginning to feel like their time too.