Title favourites France hold off late rally to clinch win
IRELAND’S Six Nations title aspirations were prematurely ended as France underlined their status as tournament favourites by grinding out a win in Dublin.
The Irish suffered successive losses at the start of a Six Nations campaign for the first time following scores from Charles Ollivon and Damian Penaud, plus five points from the boot of Matthieu Jalibert.
Ronan Kelleher’s maiden international try helped keep Andy Farrell’s depleted hosts in contention until the final whistle but they were unable to avoid another damaging defeat following last weekend’s loss in Wales.
France have won nine of 11 games since the appointment of Fabien Galthie, while this defeat piles more pressure on opposing head coach Farrell.
Ireland’s 2020 title aspirations were ended in Paris at the end of October and hopes of avoiding a repeat were dealt a severe blow during a challenging build-up in which a host of key players were ruled out.
Skipper Johnny Sexton and vice-captain James Ryan were unavailable due to head injuries, while scrum-half Conor Murray picked up a hamstring issue and flanker Peter O’Mahony was hit with a three-match ban following his costly red card in Cardiff.
Fly-half Billy Burns would have been desperate to prove himself a capable understudy to Sexton on the back of his much-discussed mistake which ended the game at the Principality Stadium.
His first penalty, after Jalibert had squandered one at the other end, was a wayward effort which showed signs of nerves but he made no mistake with a straightforward second attempt to put Ireland 3-0 ahead 20 minutes in.
France were temporarily reduced to 14 men when Bernard Le Roux was sin-binned for a deliberate trip on Keith Earls.
Ireland looked to have quickly seized on the indiscipline, only for replays to show James Lowe was pushed into touch by a combination of Brice Dulin and Gael Fickou just before grounding the ball in the left corner.
Despite their narrow escape, numerical disadvantage and a lack of possession, the visitors burst into life to claim the opening try of the afternoon.
A series of superb offloads and free-flowing rugby was followed by quick ball from right to left, with a bounce pass catching out Jamison Gibson-Park and allowing Fickou to set up Ollivon to register his seventh score in 10 matches.
Jalibert made no mistake with the conversion and added a penalty to put Les Bleus into a 10-3 half-time lead.
France could easily have been further ahead early in the second period but, after rampaging hooker Julien Marchand was tackled close to the line, Dupont’s recovery pass inadvertently hit the head of Paul Willemse.
Following that escape, the hosts suffered a triple blow due to a succession of head injuries.
After Burns was forced for assessment to be replaced by
Ross Byrne, stand-in skipper Iain Henderson and prop Cian Healy were left bloodied by a nasty clash of heads.
France took control of the contest in the 55th minute courtesy of a try from wing Penaud when he dived over in the right corner following assistance from Jalibert and Dulin.
However, Les Bleus had little time to enjoy the cushion.
Ollivon conceded a penalty from the restart and Ireland’s replacement hooker Kelleher capitalised on a fortuitous bounce from the resulting line-out to touch down.
Substitute fly-half Byrne converted and then reduced the deficit to just two points with a penalty to set up a thrilling final 15 minutes.
Galthie was frustrated when Jalibert hit the posts with a 72ndminute penalty but Les Bleus doggedly dug in to win.