France use of HIA rule to be reviewed

As Ireland’s players piled on top of one another on the Stade de France turf at the end of this game – “celebrating like footballers” to use Conor Murray’s description – they had little idea just how close they had come to being without the man who delivered them that moment of ecstasy.

Johnny Sexton looked to have spent his final bullet. With the clock ticking down, and the Irish making heavy progress up the pitch, Ireland’s chief gunslinger lay stricken on the ground.

“We had Joey [Carbery] up ready to go,” admitted Joe Schmidt, the head coach. “I mean Joey [has] steered the ship at home in the past. Maybe not on as big a stage as this but it was still a fairly big stage for us. So it was one of those things where you say: ‘We are on the cusp here’. And then the physio said: ‘Johnny feels good, he feels he can continue’. Which was a relief for us.”

That’s putting it mildly. After 41 phases lasting nearly four minutes, including one crossfield kick expertly gathered by Keith Earls, Sexton felt the moment had arrived; he put his right boot through the ball from a good 45 metres out and snatched a 15-13 win from the jaws of defeat.

“He’s a little rascal,” France flanker Yacouba Camara said later. “He had cramps and suddenly it was better for him.”

France’s players, who had defended manfully, could have been forgiven for feeling a little sore. Camara was not being ungenerous, though. “He’s not a cheater, he’s a champion,” he added.

The boy from Dublin has always had magic in his boots and, more importantly, the wherewithal to make the most of that ability. Schmidt mentioned in the aftermath that Sexton was not known for his dropped goals. But in fact he made his name with one when he was still a 16 year-old schoolboy playing for St Mary’s in Dublin.

Over a year before Jonny Wilkinson made history with his iconic effort in the final seconds of the 2003 Rugby World Cup, Sexton had already experienced a Boy’s Own moment of his own in the 2002 Leinster Schools Senior Cup final at Lansdowne Road.

Sexton’s then coach and mentor, Richie Hughes, later recalled: “He just popped it over from nowhere. It was a Roy-of-the-rovers kind of thing. Every schoolboy in the stands must have been thinking, ‘I wish that was me’. Most 16 year-olds would have thought: ‘Oh, goodness, what am I getting into here?’ But it didn’t faze him. Or if it did, he didn’t show it.”

Schmidt was thankful for that coolness under pressure on Saturday.

“Just relief,” he said when asked to describe his emotions, “because if you lose your first game, you are playing catch up the whole way.

“To work from a drop out 22 where you are about 16 metres out from your own line, for Iain Henderson to take that and for us to build the phases from there, to have the audacity to have a crosskick involved…”

The truth is Ireland will need to sharpen up their act considerably.

It was not as if they were awful. Dan Leavy came on for Josh van der Flier and was exceptional. Cian Healy likewise. In total, seven Ireland forwards did not miss a tackle all game. But the truth is they could have spent an entire week in Paris and not found their way to the try line.

Ireland now have the perfect run of fixtures in which to build some form, though. Italy at home this Saturday should see them cross the whitewash, and they then have two more home matches against Wales and Scotland before the visit to Twickenham on St Patrick’s Day. Given their record at the Aviva, the odds on Ireland arriving in southwest London chasing a Grand Slam would appear to be pretty good.

It was cruel on France. They had – until Sexton’s late intervention – produced the one moment of magic in an otherwise turgid contest, Teddy Thomas’ try enabling them to move 13-12 ahead. But given the way in which they appeared to manipulate the Head Injury Assessment protocols in the final minutes, bringing Maxime Machenaud back on for Antoine Dupont, few neutrals will have wept for them.

This was Ireland’s night. And Sexton’s. The Dubliner adding his name to an illustrious list of dropped-goal heroes: JPR Williams, Brooke, Larkham, Wilkinson.

“I think it was just a look really,” Murray replied when asked how he knew Sexton was ready. “He just gave me a flick of the eyebrows.

“I’m sure we’ll get a bit of stick for it, for celebrating like footballers, but it was natural. They are the moments you really enjoy.” Six Nations Rugby Limited is reviewing “a number of incidents” from Ireland’s 15-13 win over France in Paris after suggestions that the French tried to manipulate the Head Injury Assessment protocol.

Former Ireland centre Brian O’driscoll was one of the pundits to allege wrongdoing, calling the decision to take off Antoine Dupont, France’s replacement scrum-half, for a HIA “a disgrace”.

Dupont went down clutching his right knee, leading referee Nigel Owens to stop the game. He initially tapped his head as if suspecting a head injury. French medics attending the player appeared to confirm a leg injury, only for the fourth official to confirm the diagnosis of the independent match doctor – who never entered the field of play – that Dupont was going off for a HIA. Owens seemed dubious by this point, checking repeatedly that it was a HIA, but he was not going to overrule the independent doctor.

The upshot was that France sent Maxime Machenaud, a renowned kicker, back on, a move that also ensured they did not have to play the remainder of the match without a specialist scrum-half.

As it turned out, fly-half Anthony Belleau took France’s last penalty of the match and missed, but that did not stop allegations of gamesmanship. It was the second time in the match that a French player had gone off for a HIA, when it looked as if they had suffered a knee injury, following Matthieu Jalibert’s firsthalf substitution. And it led some to recall last year’s match against Wales when France sent specialist scrummager Rabah Slimani back on for Uini Atonio in overtime.

Of the incidents, Jacques Brunel, the French coach, said it was completely the decision of the independent doctor. He said: “They were collisions, but the head injury protocol was decided by the independent doctor; it wasn’t our decision. Both players had knee injuries, but the independent doctor decided that by the rotocol.”

World Rugby makes reviews mandatory under the terms of HIA implantation in elite rugby, which it says is intended to root out any potential abuse. An independent HIA Review Processor, Alligin (UK) Limited, will now look at the incidents to decide if they merit going to a HIA Review Panel.