Ireland thrash France to kick off 6 Nations bid
MARSEILLE: Ireland coach Andy Farrell said his team’s 38-17 thrashing of France gave them invaluable momentum in their bid to defend their Six Nations title.
The Irish outscored France – reduced to 14 after Paul Willemse was red carded in the 32nd minute – five tries to two in Marseille to consign the home side to their heaviest defeat since Fabien Galthie took over as head coach in 2019.
“We’d take any type of win, on a Friday night in Marseille to kick off the Six Nations,” said Farrell, praising his team’s composure.
“The more the game went on the more you saw the performance building. It wasn’t all singing, all dancing. But we were pretty ruthless when we needed to be.”
Farrell added: “It’s a good start. We have Italy next and getting off to a good start was always going to be a tough ask here. We’ve done that now so we need to grow off the back of it.”
Ireland outplayed France for large amounts of the game at the Stade Velodrome, and Farrell highlighted what he called the ‘world-class’ lineout performance.
“It wasn’t just the attacking lineout, it was the defensive line-out. If you have a platform like that you can be excited about your attack off the back of it,” he said.
Lock Tadhg Beirne was outstanding, as was his rookie partner Joe McCarthy, named man of the match.
“Our set piece went well and we won our line-out ball. We were insync as a team and everyone played their part. It was fantastic. It’s never easy to win away in France. We didn’t probably expect to get such a high score but we’re really happy. The atmosphere was absolutely mental, so everyone dug in and it was a fantastic team performance,” McCarthy said.
Ireland skipper Peter O’Mahony hailed the win, saying “I don’t think it gets any better”.
“It was a serious Test match. I’m very proud of the lads with our control of the game,” said O’Mahony, made captain after the retirement of Johnny Sexton.