France 10 Ireland 9
Guy Noves’ decision to keep his frontline props in reserve for the final 35 minutes looked silly for 45 minutes, but appeared to be a masterstroke when this rain-sodden encounter was completed. Joe Schmidt had forecast, and perhaps feared, that the contest would ultimately come down to a set-piece battle, and so it did, to costly effect.
Ireland were not as precise as they might have been when on top in the first-half, and lacked the cutting edge of Simon Zebo and Keith Earls, which was compounded by the loss of Sean O'Brien, Dave Kearney, Mike McCarthy and finally Johnny Sexton, all of whom looked pretty banged up.
O’Brien’s championship could be over with what looked like a knee injury.
So too, most probably, are Ireland’s hopes of an historic hat-trick of titles, but it was the absence of three front-line props, Cian Healy, Mike Ross and Marty Moore which hurt the most, and compounded the six-day turnaround.
France were so dominant in the scrums after the introduction of Eddy Ben Arous and Rabah Slimani, and so better refreshed generally off the bench, that Ireland spent virtually the entire last quarter defending in their own half.
The momentum shift was palpable in the third quarter, and one well worked try to none probably meant France just about deserved their second win out two games. But once more, the margins were wafer thin.
Amid the teeming rain Ireland had declared their hand from the off. A huge touch-finder when receiving the kick-off by Rob Kearney gave them an early territorial foothold which was strengthened by poor clearance kicks from the French halves.
Although Rory Best’s first throw for Stander at the tail was short, Ireland were able to quickly declare their tactical hand, as Sexton tested both French wingers with cross kicks in succession. Teddy Thomas, with one game in six months, was brilliantly beaten all ends up by Robbie Henshaw’s towering leap, and then Virimi Vakatawa, with one game of 15-a-side in two years, did manage to beat Rob Kearney in the air.
That was with a penalty advantage, which Ireland then tapped into the corner rather than take three points. Sean O’Brien peeled off the front, before a few charges ended with Sexton and Henshaw botching a switch in the face of aggressive defence.
After another poor kick by Bezy, Sexton and McCarthy messed up an attempted loop, but a couple of good Irish scrums were encouraging. When Maxime Medard then looked to counter, and ran in a wide arc to the right, he was brilliantly tackled by Mike McCarthy, and when an ill-advised offload by Uino Atonio led to a turnover, Sexton was hit late by Yoann Maestri with a cheap shot which was so late it seemed all four officials missed it, but Sexton dusted himself down and nailed the 35 metre penalty to open the scoring. Damien Choully was then pinged after recourse to the TMO for clearing Henshaw out by the neck.
However O’Brien was then penalised for not releasing which meant that Ireland had turned over the ball in their first three visits to the French 22, in stark contrast to the accuracy and clinical return of 13 points from their first three forays six days previously.
Furthermore, O’Brien then hobbled off after damaging either his knee or his hamstring when attempting to step inside off his left foot on the greasy turf. He was replaced by Tommy O’Donnell and in the almost predictable carnage that would follow the six-day turnaround for two such physically intense fixtures, he was followed by Dave Kearney, who sustained an apparent shoulder injury when almost cut in two by Guilhem Guirado, and Mike McCarthy, who temporarily departed in the midst of another Trojan effort.
After another poor relieving kick by Meard, Stander lost the ball in contact, before Sexton doubled the lead, only for this penalty to be cancelled out by Jules Plisson, courtesy of Devin Toner, whose aerial skills had been a striking feature of Ireland's performance, went off his feet a little wildly.
Nonetheless, another scrum penalty enabled Sexton to make it 9-3 with his third penalty from three kicks, and the half ended with Plisson missing kickable penalty. Nevertheless, given their scrum and territorial supremacy, and regular visits to the French 22, this was offset by the knowledge that Ireland could have been further ahead than 9-3.
The tone of the game changed with the introduction of what would be considered France’s first-choice props, Eddy Ben Arous and Rabah Slimami. Their scrum now assumed complete ascendancy, the only consolation being that they came inside the French half.
Ireland still had plenty of the ball, but couldn’t build sufficiently through the phases to locate weaknesses in a French defence which was improved on a week previously - then again it could hardly be as sluggish and porous. They took to the air frequently, but Medard and withstood the bombardment.
France were also making more pro-active use of their bench, primarily because they had a stronger one, and had introduced five fresh players before the hour mark, whereas Ireland’s three changes had all been enforced.
Ireland also began to look tired, and the buffer of just a six point lead began to look as Medard offloaded brilliantly in the tackle to Yacouba Camara and Plisson left McFadden for dead before Trimble turned and managed to deflect the try-scoring skip pass to the ground and gather.
Despite the low-scoring nature of the game, France turned down an easy looking three-pointer by going to the corner. The drive was withheld, as were a sequence of close-in charges, as vast acres of space were ignored out wide to increasingly loud chants of Allez Les Bleus. Trimble made one outstanding block on Vakatawa, O’Donnell and Murray combined to deny Maxime Machenaud, Best pulled off another one, and Payne made a great read when coming up hard.
Finally Choully picked and charged for the line under the posts, and despite the crowd’s encouragement the George Ayoub could not award the try; Rob Kearney and Jamie Heaslip doing enough to prevent the touchdown - or at least obscure it.
Cue La Marseillaise, the crowd applauding themselves, as the French five metre scrum was re-set. Inching forward to thunderous roads, three French penalties followed, and each time then opted for another scrum. There was one backline play off the second of them, which was sufficient for Sexton to depart with what appeared another neck injury.
France then caught Ireland by surprise when Machenaud gathered quickly, ran an arc which fixed Sexton’s replacement, Ian Madigan, and popped to Medard, coming on a hard short line. Rob Henshaw had pushed up on his man, and Medard went through the gap. O’Donnell, forced to stay bound by the preceding scrums, couldn’t get to the full-back in time and Plisson’s conversion put Les Bleus in front.
Madigan promptly kicked the restart out on the full and Ireland would never escape from their half again. Any chance of Ireland getting into three-point range ended when Maxime Mermoz deliberately knocked on, but instead of the penalty and yellow card he should have awarded Jaco Peypur (not helped by his touch judge Stuart Berry) deemed it worthy only of a scrum inside the Irish 10 metre line. That was the last thing Ireland wanted, and France ran down the clock comfortably.
Scoring sequence: 15 mins Sexton pen 0-3; 29 mins Sexton pen 0-6; 32 mins Plisson pen 3-6; 39 mins Sexton pen 3-9; 70 mins Medard try, Plisson con 10-9.
FRANCE: Maxime Médard (Toulouse); Teddy Thomas (Racing 92), Maxime Mermoz (Toulon), Jonathan Danty (Stade Français), Virimi Vakatawa (FFR); Jules Plisson (Stade Français), Sébastien Bézy (Toulouse); Jefferson Poirot (Bordeaux-Bègles), Guilhem Guirado (Toulon) (capt), Uini Atonio (La Rochelle), Alexandre Flanquart (Stade Français), Yoann Maestri (Toulouse), Wenceslas Lauret (Racing 92), Yacouba Camara (Toulouse), Damien Chouly (Clermont Auvergne).
Replacements: Rabah Slimani (Stade Français) for Atonio, Eddy Ben Arous (Racing 92) for Poirot, Hugo Bonneval (Stade Français) for Thomas (all 45 mins), Camille Chat (Racing 92) for Guirado (49-58 mins), Maxime Machenaud (Racing 92) for Bezy (57 mins), Paul Jedrasiak (Clermont Auvergne) for Maestri (59 mins), Loann Goujon (Bordeaux-Bègles) for Camara (68 mins), Jean-Marc Doussain (Toulouse) for Danty (76 mins).
IRELAND: Rob Kearney (UCD/Leinster); Andrew Trimble (Ballymena/Ulster), Jared Payne (Ulster), Robbie Henshaw (Buccaneers/Connacht), Dave Kearney (Lansdowne/Leinster); Jonathan Sexton (St. Mary’s College/Leinster), Conor Murray (Garryowen/Munster); Jack McGrath (St. Mary’s College/Leinster), Rory Best (Banbridge/Ulster) (capt), Nathan White (Connacht), Devin Toner (Lansdowne/Leinster), Mike McCarthy (Lansdowne/Leinster), CJ Stander (Munster), Sean O’Brien (UCD/Leinster), Jamie Heaslip (Dublin University/Leinster).
Replacements: Tommy O’Donnell (UL Bohemians/Munster) for O’Brien (20 mins), Fergus McFadden (Old Belvedere/Leinster) for D Kearney (30 mins)
Donnacha Ryan (Shannon/Munster) for McCarthy (35-40 and 63 mins),
Tadhg Furlong (Clontarf/Leinster) for White (63 mins), Ian Madigan (Blackrock College/Leinster) for Sexton (69 mins), Richardt Strauss (Old Wesley/Leinster) for Best (72 mins), James Cronin (Dolphin/Munster) for McGrath (74 mins). Not used - Eoin Reddan (Old Crescent/Leinster),
Referee: Jaco Peyer (South Africa)
