GRIM REALITY HITS HOME
Six Nations divide is all too clear as sloppy Ireland play into French hands Ireland 15 France 56
EVEN ALLOWING for a two-tier Six Nations, this was a thoroughly demoralising beating.
France enjoy long-standing advantages over Ireland, and they have become more pronounced since their women’s team went semi-professional in 2018.
With England a full-time squad, two teams dominate this competition and will do so for years to come.
But all that acknowledged, this was a bruising result for Ireland. Coming after a performance in which optimism was engendered by a big win in Cardiff last week, this was a crushing reality check.
Even at their best, Ireland would struggle against a side of this quality. The pity is they were not at their best.
If Ireland were to have any chance of winning the game, they had to have their game well-honed but also tightly controlled. A bigger, more experienced French side would pose enough problems of their own; the Irish had to avoid self-inflicted ones. They didn’t, and their failure in this regard should be the greatest cause of frustration to their coach Adam Griggs, and the players.
Ireland were needlessly sloppy and inattentive in the first half, giving away careless penalties and suffering for every mistake.
That is the curse of facing an opponent who comes into the game with existing advantages: they will not pass up any opportunities presented them, never mind the damage they will do on their own.
A good example here was France’s third try. Ciara Griffin, the captain, was whistled for going offside at a ruck. The offence was blatant and entirely avoidable, with Griffin failing to resist the temptation to tackle France’s scrum half, Laure Sansus.
France kicked the penalty to touch, then easily mauled Ireland over the line. Referee Sara Cox awarded a penalty try in the end, judging that Aoife McDermott had dragged the maul down.
Ireland went 21-7 down and also lost the second row for 10 minutes to the sin-bin.
That score scrubbed any lingering competitive element out of the contest, and the speed with which France took control of the game after a good Irish start was another illustration of the differences between the teams.
Ireland took the lead in fourth minute from a Hannah Tyrrell penalty. Dorothy Wall gave another indication of Irish intent with a smashing tackle on Caroline Bojuard, the brilliant French wing.
As well as a powerful presence in defence, flanker Wall is also one of Ireland’s most reliable options in attack. But France were waiting for her, just like they were for Beibhinn Parsons, too.
The two young stars of the side were limited in contrasting ways. Wall was lined up by French tacklers any time she received a pass. Parsons, by contrast, saw barely any of the ball.
She was given one pass in the first half, which was indicative of the extent to which France controlled the game.
Parsons was stripped of possession by her opposing wing, Cyrielle Banet, who ran in the score.
That left France 30 points ahead at
the break, 38-8, and Ireland’s cause was lost.
It started to drift from the fourteenth minute, when Boujard scored her first try – and in doing so showed no ill-effects from Wall’s stern early intervention. Five minutes later, full-back Emilie Boulard outsprinted the Irish defence to chase and touch down a raking kick from Sansus that caught the Irish defence out of position.
The last sliver of Irish relief came in the 27th minute, when Cliodhna
Moloney touched down, but Safi N’Diaye and Banet would stamp down on Irish optimism with tries before the break.
The misery continued on the resumption. Boujard scored her second, before France started to flood the field with replacements.
This, remember, was a team that showed eight changes from the side that hammered Wales in their opening game, and many of those rested from the start here are starters.
The pick of them is their classy loose forward Romane Menager, who easily stepped around Eimear Considine to put the French 48-8 ahead with 25 minutes still to play.
Ireland were wrecked by then, despite bringing on their own subs, and they lost another player to a yellow card when Amee-Leigh Murphy Crowe was binned for a high tackle, after coming on for her debut.
It wasn’t a cynical hit, but rather another symptom of the ceaseless pressure under which Ireland were