The Six Nations is on. A young, remodelled France, announced themselves as overdue contenders again for the first time in a decade, blew the 2020 Guinness Six Nations wide open with a momentous 24-17 win over the World Cup finalists at the Stade de France on Sunday.
France had been beaten on the opening weekend at home two years ago when leading deep into injury time before Johnny Sexton's drop goal set Ireland on the way to a Grand Slam, and again last year after leading 16-0 at half-time before Wales's 24-19 comeback win set them on the road to the Grand Slam. But, whatever else, there will be no Grand Slam for England.
A sixth-minute try by debutant left-winger Vincent Rattez and two more by new captain Charles Ollivon had les bleus 24-0 up after 55 minutes, whereupon two outstanding individualistic tries by Jonny May threatened an even more unlikely French defeat from the jaws of victory.
A late bonus point courtesy of a penalty by the oddly off-colour Owen Farrell after the otherwise brilliant Antoine Dupont kicked the ball dead almost a minute prematurely will encourage England to still believe they can win the title.
But France have been revived by new head coach Fabien Galthié, defence coach Shaun Edwards and, in all, an infusion of four young debutants. With Italy at home next Sunday, Les Bleus will travel to Cardiff in round three with, most probably, nine points and a new-found strut in their stride. By contrast, England have a six-day turnaround before facing Scotland at Murrayfield next Saturday in a Calcutta Cup match that amounts to a title eliminator.
Showdown
Admittedly, with trips to Twickenham still to come for both Ireland and Wales, the same can possibly be said of their showdown at the Aviva Stadium next Saturday (kick-off 2.15). Under new head coach Wayne Pivac, Wales moved to the top of an embryonic table with Saturday’s 42-0 bonus point home win over Italy, and the reigning Grand Slam champions and World Cup semi-finalists arrive on the back of winning 10 of their last 11 competitive matches and with seemingly no casualties from their opening game.
There's a few boys that are going to be bruised and battered anyway, so we'll see what happens
By contrast, Ireland are expected to give an update on Monday morning on a quartet of injuries sustained against Scotland. Garry Ringrose appears the most worrisome, given he has had to undergo a scan on the suspected broken thumb which forced his withdrawal at half-time and is likely to rule him out of the game against Wales next Saturday and against England at Twickenham two weeks later. But the expectation is that Ringrose will recover in time for Ireland's last two games at home to Italy and away to France.
Tadhg Furlong also suffered a calf injury when tracking down Hamish Watson near the end of a big shift, while Andy Farrell sounded relatively upbeat about Caelan Doris and David Kilcoyne, even though both failed their HIAs and will have to undergo the return-to-play protocols.
Continuity’s sake
Farrell is still scheduled to announce the team to play Wales on Tuesday and intimated that his selections will not be based on continuity for continuity’s sake.
“There’s a few boys that are going to be bruised and battered anyway, so we’ll see what happens but, yeah, continuity is one thing but at the heart of it really, the only thing that’s right is what’s right for the team and the opposition we’re playing next week. So if we need to change we’ll do that.”
Farrell also accepted that Ireland will need to be sharper next Saturday.
“It was a little bit stop-start,” he conceded. “I thought the Scottish forwards did pretty well. The set-piece was a tough old battle so I think we’ll get better. I thought Rob Herring’s throwing and Iain Henderson’s calling was really good but I think it was stuff across the board.
“There were little bits, like off your feet, or trying to offload when it wasn’t on. Sometimes playing wide-wide and getting on the edges is great but sometimes there’s a hole straight in front of you so just calm it down a little bit and we’ll be better for that practice.
“Sometimes it wasn’t perfect,” said Farrell of Ireland’s defence, “when they’d make a line-break or whatever, but the will to fight, to stay strong on your own line was tremendous and we can certainly build on that.”
Assured impact
Inevitably, there’ll be further attention on the scrum-half debate after John Cooney’s assured impact in the last quarter, but Farrell concurred with the view that Conor Murray had a strong hour.
Some of his kicking was exceptional, one or two went astray. But, like everyone, there's some things to work on
“I thought John did well when he came on, I thought Conor did as well. I thought he [Murray] played with higher tempo at times, he was right in the thick of it when we were going pretty well in the opposition ’22 in the first half, and in the second half he was looking for holes and getting out there a little bit more than what we’ve seen him in the past.
“Some of his kicking was exceptional, one or two went astray. But, like everyone, there’s some things to work on. He’ll be happy enough, Conor. He worked tirelessly for a good stint there.
“John came on, he’ll be happy to get a good 20 minutes there. There wasn’t too much for him to do because the game started to get a little bit stop-start, but I thought he did very well.”
One of the day’s most encouraging sights was Jordan Larmour seemingly being given licence to thrill, and making more than twice as many metres, 138, as any other player on the pitch from his 19 carries.
Asked if he frightened the Scots, Farrell quipped: “He frightened me at times, yeah, but that’s what he does. He actually doesn’t know what he’s doing with his own feet, does he? I mean, they’re crazy, his feet. He’s great to have around. But we have some great options there.”
