Ireland ponder what might have been after French comeback win

Scott Bemand's side came to the end of the road, despite leading 13-0 at the break in Exeter on Sunday.

GENERATION GAME: Ireland's Ellena Perry with her son Bert dejected after the game. Pic: INPHO/Ben Brady

FRANCE 18 IRELAND 13 

Ireland’s women will return home from this Women’s Rugby World Cup with heads held high following a narrow quarter-final defeat to France on Sunday having given their all.

Yet there will be regrets and it may take a while for Scott Bemand to review this competition exit at Sandy Park, but when the head coach does re-open his laptop, one would imagine he will spend a chunk of time looking back at the 35 phases of play which determined Ireland’s fate at this tournament.

There will be more obvious moments, perhaps, when the die was cast that sends the French into the last four and a semi-final date this Saturday against hosts and hot favourites England, not least the failure by match officials to adequately follow up Aoife Wafer’s on-field claim that she was bitten by opposition flanker Axelle Barthoumieu as Ireland led 13-0 two minutes into the second half.

If action is to be taken by World Cup organisers and World Rugby disciplinary officials, it will come too late to be meaningful to Ireland's campaign. Indeed, Bemand’s team needed to be further ahead on the scoreboard by that stage and it was their failure to extend their advantage during their lengthy but ultimately futile assault on the French tryline before half-time which really did for them.

Tries from Linda Djougang and Stacey Flood plus a penalty from Dannah O’Brien had given Ireland the upper hand as they adapted better to the wind and rain that was at their backs in Exeter throughout the opening period. But they needed more, as Bemand acknowledged and for all their efforts during the five minutes of added time that followed the sin-binning of French captain Manae Teleu, that necessary score did not come. Their play was impressive, the Irish maul powerful, their scrum dominant but Ireland’s frustrations were epitomised by the frantically waving hand of Amee Leigh Costigan as she lingered menacingly unopposed, possibly unnoticed but definitely unreached, out on the left wing through those 35 agonising phases before a French turnover relieved the siege.

“Yeah, look, that point, we felt that could be fairly pivotal,” Ireland’s head coach said. “We thought it was a three-score wind and we needed to take advantage of that.

“It’s a significant moment but we created moments in the second half so it isn’t based on that in isolation but when you start to build pressure, you need to be able to take your scores.

“Early in the competition - against Japan and Spain - we had quite a good record of getting into the opposition 22 and coming up with points and last week we found that a little bit harder against New Zealand so we put some practice into that this week.

“France are a good team. They’re full of big athletes. They’re strong and in the conditions they managed to get a little bit of pressure on our first pass.

“We’ll go back and review it. Of course we will. We’ll take the learnings of how we get on top of teams and how to close out points when we get into their 22.” 

France started the second half with the wind in their favour, at least initially but still a player down with their captain binned, and Morgane Bourgeois’s penalty got them on the scoreboard at last on 48 minutes. The French would concede a third yellow in the closing minutes but it was an Irish sinbinning which told most. Replacement back-rower Grace Moore was sent packing for a high tackle on 57 minutes and that provided the entry point for France to steal the momentum. A converted Charlotte Escudero try followed and then another, for wing Joanna Grisez, before Ireland were back to their full team. To their credit, they kept pressing to get back in the game when 15-13 down only for a late Bourgeois penalty four minutes from time left Ireland needing a converted try to regain the lead but it did not materialise and France advance to a semi-final against tournament favourites and hosts England, who dispatched Scotland 40-8 with ruthless efficiency in their last-eight clash at Bristol’s Ashton Gate.

Which means the top four in the world have duly lived up to their billing, with second-seeded Canada set to meet defending champions New Zealand in the first semi of the weekend, also in Bristol this Friday night.

For Ireland there is deep disappointment but also pride in the journey taken under Bemand from his first campaign in WXV3 just two years ago and optimism for the road not yet travelled.

Captain Sam Mongahan summed it up best, when the second row, one of only three of the matchday squad aged 30 or over at 32, spoke of her satisfaction that her team had given their all in England these past five weeks.

"Yeah, look, that's what I asked from the girls at the start of the game. 'Don't let the moment can buy you leave everything you can out there'. I truly believe we did.

"You can see it in the player's faces, they are heartbroken. But it's such a proud (dressing-room). I couldn't ask for more from them. We gave it all, we brought them to 90 minutes, probably, in the end with the five minutes from the first half, but I'm extremely proud of this group.

"It is a young group as Scott said, like, you know, only 31 player out 32 has experienced a World Cup before, so you know, if you do look back two years ago, we were competing in WX3, and you know, we were very, very close to winning a World Cup quarter-final there.

"We're gutted, we're heartbroken. We know we could have had that game, but we'll hold our heads high, rebuild and grow together."

FRANCE: M Bourgeouis; J Grisez, M Menager, G Vernier (S Okemba, 65-75 HIA), K Arbey; L Queyroi (E Boulard, 77), P Bourdon Sansus (A Chambon, 75); Y Brosseau (A Deshaye, 46-77), I Gerin (M Bigot, 65), R Bernadou (A Khalfaoui, 29); M Feleu – captain, M Fall Raclot; A Berthoumieu (A Khalfaoui, 21-29 FR rep, T Feleu, 52), L Champon (S Okemba, 76), C Escudero.

Yellow cards: R Bernadou 18-28, M Teleu 40-46 incl. first-half added time, A Chambon 77.

Replacements not used: A H Ikahehegi.

IRELAND: S Flood; B Parsons, A Dalton, E Higgins, A L Costigan; D O’Brien, A Reilly; N O’Dowd (E Perry, 57), N Jones (C Moloney MacDonald, 65), L Djougang; R Campbell, S Monaghan – captain (E Corri-Fallon, 65); F Tuite, A Wafer, B Hogan (G Moore, 57).

Yellow card: G Moore 59-69 Replacements not used: S McGrath, E Lane, E Breen, A McGann.

Referee: Aimee Barrett-Theron (South Africa)