Match preview & thread: FRA vs IRE (Sat Feb 3, 1645)

Ardillaun · 03-02-2018 08:10PM

Miraculous finish in poor weather, incredible determination shown by all, but the backrow was bested at the breakdown (POM had a very quiet game) and we showed little invention in the back line. The replacements livened us up, especially Leavy. Toner and McGrath looked useful too.

Fair play to France though. A team new to each other and their coach managed to make 238 tackles and miss only 14. Thomas is a lovely player - strong, fast and balanced.

Akrasia · 03-02-2018 08:11PM

France v Ireland. They always bring their A game against us. I wouldn't be surprised if they lose to Italy later on, but that doesn't distract from the fact that France played their hearts out tonight.

tritriagain · 03-02-2018 08:12PM

Augme wrote: »

After todays matches I really do fear the trip to Wales far more now.

They're coming here

Shefwedfan · 03-02-2018 08:12PM

I am loving TV3 so far.....great selection of ex players .....good analysis

munsterlegend · 03-02-2018 08:12PM

I think Evans likes to make some strange decisions and be the centre of attention sometimes.

kevingonewest · 03-02-2018 08:12PM

One of our best ever match wins, played superb all the way against a mighty French side. Though it makes the bonus points for a poor looking Wales v a pre-Cotter type Scotland look like nonsense.

irishbucsfan · 03-02-2018 08:12PM

MattD wrote: »

That's fair, I didn't know the details. But it still begs the question 'what did the doctor *see* that required a HIA'. Because it's the difference between a team being able to bring back Maxime Machenaud, rather than not having a SH for the last five minutes. Even if the player had passed a HIA and miraculously shook off his knee injury, he wouldn't have done it in time to come back on the pitch, so why do France get that advantage?

Sometimes they do it based on the players' behaviour. If a player seems to show a loss of balance or out of it it might point to them having had a knock to the head elsewhere.

Who knows really. I have a friend who does exactly this and it sounds an incredibly difficult job and I'm sure there are situations where guys are taken off needlessly.

Guy:Incognito · 03-02-2018 08:13PM

irishbucsfan wrote: »

I have no idea at all. But this idea that he just made it up is very silly.

It may be that a qualified doctor at the match with control of his own views of the game might be in a better position to make a call. Or it may be that in the heat of the moment he made the wrong call. But what is probably not very likely is this was some sort of huge conspiracy.

No one said he made it up. The French bench, through the injured player,said to the doc "I hit my head" and he's always going to agree with that.

If they didn't need Machenaud back on that would have been a run of the mill knee injury, guaranteed.

BBDBB · 03-02-2018 08:13PM

munsterlegend wrote: »

We are not going to Wales!

Shut up! You're not my dad!

;-)

The Talking Bread · 03-02-2018 08:13PM

Augme wrote: »

After todays matches I really do fear the trip to Wales far more now.

You may want to cancel those ferry tickets

Mr.Crinklewood · 03-02-2018 08:13PM

tritriagain wrote: »

They're coming here

Not when Foot and Mouth breaks out.

03-02-2018 08:13PM

I understand that a match doctor will always agree that it's a hia he has to but this can't just be accepted now that we have rolling subs

Rezident · 03-02-2018 08:14PM

Own up lads! Which irishman broke nigel owens' heart so that he cheats ireland out of clear decisions and points in every game? He is too good a ref - technically, not honestly - to make this many mistakes that ALWAYS go against Ireland. Shame on you nigel, yet again.

Jack Kanoff · 03-02-2018 08:14PM

[Deleted User] wrote: »

I totally disagree. France were incredible today. 23 exceptional athletes going far above and beyond anything they've collectively achieved in years. That was amazing from France and I really thought we'd break them down but they didn't let us.

We weren't bad at all. We were not at our best but we were well up there. That was just incredible, it's almost sad it wasn't on the last day as it would live for ever if it was the moment that won the grand slam.

Hang on.....how can that be... didn't people say we are going to win by 18 points..how could this happen?!?

03-02-2018 08:14PM

awec wrote: »

Venjur, can I ask you with all seriousness, were you watching the right match today?

irishbucsfan wrote: »

Nah

I haven't seen a French team work that hard for each other in a long, long time. They were at home under a new coach and weren't prepared to give up.

We made big errors and things went against us but it was a forgone conclusion in that last 5 minutes that France would win given the flow of the game. That the entire Ireland team were not prepared to pack it in and had the discipline to produce a platform to win is incredible.

Remember that Ireland almost beat the All Blacks in New Zealand under Kidney during our three match tour. We were no great shakes and racked with injuries but still put it upto them. The playing field at test level is only level when you look over a season, outlier results like this happen.

Ireland won that game like the All Blacks do, by producing something unbelievable to win a lost battle.

I think people are being ridiculous about this game. It's a massive victory.

kevingonewest · 03-02-2018 08:15PM

One of our best ever match wins, played superb all the way against a mighty French side. Though it makes the bonus points for a poor looking Wales v a pre-Cotter type Scotland look like nonsense.

irishbucsfan · 03-02-2018 08:15PM

Guy:Incognito wrote: »

No one said he made it up. The French bench, through the injured player,said to the doc "I hit my head" and he's always going to agree with that.

If they didn't need Machenaud back on that would have been a run of the mill knee injury, guaranteed.

Maybe. You're completely free to be totally certain about that despite the lack of evidence. I'll remain undecided and if there's something to investigate the IRFU guys will put that pressure on.

dublinman1990 · 03-02-2018 08:16PM

I welled up tears of joy after Sexton's kick. It was an amazing feat to get a result like that in Paris. It was a wonderful finish from an Irish perspective. If the result had the opposite effect; there would be negative reactions from every part of the Irish fanbase including the media pundits. But this type of incredible result came for us out of a not so perfect game against France today. We were very lucky to win it by the skins of our teeth. This win needs to send a message to Joe & the lads that we cannot fall asleep at the wheel when we play against O'Shea's Italian outfit at the Aviva next Saturday. Well done lads for the win.

https://www.sixnationsrugby.com/en/matchcentre/32407.php

DJIMI TRARORE · 03-02-2018 08:16PM

awec wrote:

It was an amazing last 120 seconds but the previous 78 minutes were pretty awful from Ireland. Certainly not an amazing performance. The standard was pretty low.

awec wrote:

A loss would have been an incredibly poor result. In fact a loss today would have been among the low points of Schmidt's tenure. Not really sure why anyone would live with a grand slam being killed off right out the gate by a poor French team.

That's more or less the full summary of the game,poor performance,great result. We don't look capable of running in a try.

munsterlegend · 03-02-2018 08:16PM

Rezident wrote: »

Own up lads! Which irishman broke nigel owens' heart so that he cheats ireland out of clear decisions and points in every game. He is too good a ref - technically, not honestly - to make this many mistakes that ALWAYS go against Ireland. Shame on you nigel, yet again.

Always remember that penalty he gave against us v the all blacks. Today he was fine for 60 mins but gave us nothing when the game was in the melting pot in the last 20.

Sean Kinsella · 03-02-2018 08:17PM

Magnificent last ditch win, but very ordinary before that, it has to be said: not helped by France playing fast and loose with the offside laws, from the first whistle onward.

Aki punched some big holes on occasion, but we were too slow to recycle and exploit them.

lawred2 · 03-02-2018 08:17PM

I love Keith Earls

lawred2 · 03-02-2018 08:18PM

Sean Kinsella wrote: »

Magnificent last ditch win, but very ordinary before that, it has to be said: not helped by France playing fast and loose with the offside laws, from the first whistle onward.

Aki punched some big holes on occasion, bit we were too slow to recycle and exploit them.

And being allowed to do so.

There was about 2 or 3 yellow cards that Owens inexplicably chose not to hand out

irishbucsfan · 03-02-2018 08:18PM

I haven't eaten since breakfast. I was starving at half time.

Now I'm not hungry at all.

Sexton has cured my hunger.

Guy:Incognito · 03-02-2018 08:18PM

irishbucsfan wrote: »

Maybe. You're completely free to be totally certain about that despite the lack of evidence. I'll remain undecided and if there's something to investigate the IRFU guys will put that pressure on.

There wouldn't be anything to investigate. This is like whiplash in car accidents. When there's an incentive, the number of cases rises.

The Talking Bread · 03-02-2018 08:19PM

Shefwedfan wrote: »

I am loving TV3 so far.....great selection of ex players .....good analysis

I think their post match analysis has been promising and they have kept their emotions in tact which could have been difficult. Could do with a little bit of lightness though, but the camaraderie might build. It was all very tense up until that
Everyone know what O Gara has to offer, punditry wise so it is just about getting used to some of the others

Sean Kinsella · 03-02-2018 08:19PM

lawred2 wrote: »

And being allowed to do so.

There was about 2 or 3 yellow cards that Owens inexplicably chose not to hand out

Agreed: that charge on Murray, being one of them.

awec · 03-02-2018 08:19PM

Deleted User wrote: »

I haven't seen a French team work that hard for each other in a long, long time. They were at home under a new coach and weren't prepared to give up.

We made big errors and things went against us but it was a forgone conclusion in that last 5 minutes that France would win given the flow of the game. That the entire Ireland team were not prepared to pack it in and had the discipline to produce a platform to win is incredible.

Remember that Ireland almost beat the All Blacks in New Zealand under Kidney during our three match tour. We were no great shakes and racked with injuries but still put it upto them. The playing field at test level is only level when you look over a season, outlier results like this happen.

Ireland won that game like the All Blacks do, by producing something unbelievable to win a lost battle.

I think people are being ridiculous about this game. It's a massive victory.

I think you're confusing two things, the result and the performance.

The result is good.

The performance was definitely not good. It should never have come down to an 82nd minute drop goal.

France were one dimensional but so were Ireland. We could play until this time tomorrow and we wouldn't score a try. Too many passes to static forwards, not enough guile on show. At one point it looked like every single Irish player was in between the two 15 metre lines.

I think there is an aspect of people playing down expectations on France here and then bigging up Ireland because France weren't as bad as people thought. Ok, France weren't completely hopeless but they weren't great either. Ireland should still have comfortably dealt with that today.

So while the result was good, I am sure the biggest takeaway in the Irish camp will be that things must improve, and that we are fortunate that another off day hasn't cost us our goals for this tournament.

dregin · 03-02-2018 08:20PM

Great bottle to pull it back. Very happy with a few performances, but felt we should have been kickong to the corner a lot more. Route 1 wasn't working too well.

Was pretty disappointed with Nigel's performance. Vahaamahina should have been nipped in the bud early on, but barely got a warning. French players lyong all over the ball weren't pinged, but Aki was when the ball was readily available to play.

Happy with the win, but a lot to work on.

Shefwedfan · 03-02-2018 08:22PM

The Talking Bread wrote: »

I think their post match analysis has been promising and they have kept their emotions in tact which could have been difficult. Could do with a little bit of lightness though, but the camaraderie might build. It was all very tense up until that
Everyone know what O Gara has to offer, punditry wise so it is just about getting used to some of the others

I would personally bring shaggy back to studio and put Jennings pitch side

Match preview & thread: FRA vs IRE (Sat Feb 3, 1645)

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