THIS FEELS LIKE THE REAL DEAL
Ireland are now in a position where they are living up to the ‘world-beaters’ tag
ALL aboard the World Cup hype train. Next stop, Paris. We’ve been here many times in the past. The Six Nations prior to a World Cup and Ireland looking like world beaters. This time it feels different. Inflicting a bonus-point defeat on your biggest global rivals is one thing. Doing it without Tadhg Furlong, Dan Sheehan and Jamison Gibson-Park is pretty impressive.
Then look at the team which closed it out. This pulsating contest was hanging in the balance when the home side lost Johnny Sexton and Tadhg Beirne in the space of five minutes early in the second half. Peter O’Mahony would soon follow. Bealham, after another impressive shift, was called ashore as well.
It was the bench that brought this big win home. Tom O’Toole, Iain Henderson, Jack Conan, Craig Casey, Ross Byrne and Bundee Aki had huge moments as Ireland gradually turned the screw, confirming that status as the No 1 ranked team in the world in the process.
A first title and Grand Slam since 2018 is now in their sights. And the World Cup, dare we say it, should be hunted down with venom.
Why not? When you have players of the calibre of Andrew Porter, James Ryan, Josh van der Flier, Caelan Doris, Garry Ringrose, James Lowe and Hugo Keenan on board. Anything – again, dare we say it – is possible in 2023. This is the new spine of this Ireland team. In Andy Farrell, they possibly have a coach who can finally solve a four-year issue which has haunted teams in green since 1987.
Crucially, they have finally beaten France. This was the win they craved. The last box unticked.
All the global heavyweights have been dismissed on Farrell’s watch now. A huge scalp, make no mistake about it.
France arrived with the swagger of a team who were fed up hearing about Ireland’s status as the supposed top-ranked team in the world.
Their fans travelled in their droves as well as ‘Allez les Bleus’ rang around the stands in the hour leading up to kick-off. There is a buzz around Les Bleus. They feel something special is building ahead of their home World Cup later this year.
And you felt they coming here to make a point. The visitors, after all, are the reigning Grand Slam champs and had won the last three meetings with Ireland on Farrell’s watch. They looked like an operation who were looking to set the record straight.
This week, Fabien Galthie opted to keep his squad in Rome, in the comfortable surroundings of a five-star resort near the Vatican. Resting body and mind, with a six-day turnaround ahead of this visit to Dublin, was the plan. Last season, Shaun Edwards had his squad training with the French foreign legion in Marseilles – they certainly looked battle hardened against Ireland in Paris.
Worryingly for Farrell’s side, there was perhaps a bit of context to the sluggish, indisciplined performance in Rome in the opening round. A game where the visitors coughed up 18 penalties and almost suffered.
They’d been put through the ringer for two weeks in a gruelling training camp in Capbreton, a small working class town near Bayonne on the Atlantic coast. Think Hell Week with berets and you get the
idea. As Gael Fickou pointed out earlier this week, the plan was to peak for the Aviva, not the Stadio Olimpico.
There is a sneaking suspicion that French are almost treating this Six Nations like a pre-World Cup camp, a chance to fine-tune things ahead of the bigger assignment down the road. Still, this was a huge win for Farrell’s men.
Has there been a better first half of rugby in this tournament’s history? We’re all guilty of hyperbole in this game, but the opening 40 minutes fully justified the ‘blockbuster’ and ‘box office’ headlines in the days leading up to this crunch clash.
It was almost like a Christopher Nolan epic: loud, brash and full of twists and turns. You simply couldn’t take your eyes off it.
There would have been a knowing nod from Joe Schmidt watching from his home in New Zealand. Forget about the time difference, of course the former Leinster and Ireland head coach was tuning in.
The deftness of hand from Bealham to send Keenan away for the opening try was straight out of Schmidt’s old playbook, almost a mirror image of a score from Cian Healy against Clermont in a pulsating 2012 Heineken Cup semifinal victory against Clermont.
Farrell’s Ireland have moved on from the prescriptive days of Schmidt, but that strike move was a reminder of how effective the national team could be on the Kiwi’s watch.
And that’s the thing about Farrell’s Ireland. They may have a wider approach, but they remain a group which thrives on structure, building phase after phase before going for the jugular. Of course, there is more freedom on Farrell’s watch but Ireland 2.0 are still a well-drilled crew.
Perhaps that is the key difference with this stellar French side. Yes, they are a slicker, more organised and steelier bunch under Galthie and Edwards. They can happily throw off the shackles and play with reckless abandon, however.
Damian Penaud’s try was a case in point. It was like watching France in the 1980s, those old games that used to get an airing on TG4 when you arrived back from the pub in the early hours. The days when Les Bleus ran amok, regardless of the position and the number on their backs.
It was breathtaking stuff. You can chat about Mack Hansen’s illadvised chip and chase, Sexton snatching at a rampaging Anthony Jelonch or Hansen getting burned by Penaud. You could only admire the French enterprise, mind.
The drama didn’t stop there. We had Uini Atonio’s high tackle on Rob Herring. The French tighthead was a lucky boy to see only yellow for that one. The purists were quietly relieved that we still had 15 v 15. You could feel a classic brewing.
Still, by the letter of the law, Atonio should have been sent off. Herring did not return from his HIA. It said it all really. Referee Wayne Barnes got that one wrong.
Then we had James Lowe’s acrobatic finish and Porter’s close-range effort. All the while, France kept in touch thanks to their pack and the boot of Ramos.
There was almost a collective gasp of air when the half-time whistle was blown.
The second half, unsurprisingly, was a more attritional affair. At times, it looks like Ireland were holding on. They needed some inspiration from the bench. And it duly arrived via Conan, Casey, Byrne and Co. It bodes well for a World Cup campaign.
If these teams meet again, it will be in a World Cup knockout game. It could be a quarter-final or indeed a final if they both continue on their upward trajectories.
It might sound fanciful given Ireland’s grim World Cup history, but you’ll do well to dial down the hype after this performance.