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

Beechwoodspark wrote: »

Mad things can happen when we play France in Paris.

As I was saying.....

[Deleted User] wrote: »

The player lay on the ground clutching his head. Let go and was about to sit up when play got near then lay back clutching his head. The match ref has no other option if someone is holding their head lying on the ground.

I want to see it back again as I want to be certain before I accuse anyone but it absolutely reeks at first glance. Will see how it plays out.

From what I remember he had a hand at his face, the other down at his knee I think. The way a lot of people do in that "ah the ****ing pain of my knee" way. He wasnt holding his head in hands in the way you do if you get a knock on the head.

Rugbyf565 wrote: »

Sexton was incredible today, great composure, bravery, in Defense and attack. Belief. Everything you want from a player, immense respect. Earls too must be massively credited for that kick chase in the lead up to that try. Dan Leavy worked like a tireless dog at the end too huge effort.

Yera I don't know 'bout that. Ireland were in the French 22 several times camped but up against a brick wall and sexton seemed fixated on try scoring. Should have gone for several drop kicks. We got turned over by aggressive powerful energetic brick wall and off down the other end of field for 2 penalties. That's minus 6 points from camping in their 22. Too many bad judgement calls in attack .
Other wise they were damn good.

Re the second "HIA" it was the fourth official that spoke to Owens. After the French player went to ground having obviously jarred his knee, he was immobile and put his hand to his head (in pain). Owens saw this and presumed it was a knock to the head and indicated such. France saw this and copped on that they could send Machenaud back on if it was a HIA. The fourth official then communicated to Owens that it was a HIA because that is what the French must have told the doctor.

With regards to the game, France played above themselves and got away with murder at the ruck on occasion. The momentum swing when Furlong got ripped was the key. A score then for Ireland and France were gone. I don't think the TV conveyed how bad the conditions were and not very conducive to running rugby.

The French try was tragic. Poor kick by Kearney not finding the crowd and preventing the quick tap as French tails were up. Only Murray chased. Kearney (again) bit in when he should have trusted Aki and then Stockdale with an impression of a statue when a more experienced wing would have made the tackle on Thomas.

Then Jonny Sexton. GOAT. How many times did he touch the ball in those 40 phases?! He had cramped up twice earlier. Shout out to Leavy, Henderson, Aki and Earls who really made crucial yards in the build up.

Not great all game:
Best (...)
Henshaw
Stockdale
Stander
POM

Thought James Ryan put in a really good shift.

Passes - Runs - Metres Run

Have to say I'm quite disappointed at the reaction to this result. We weren't great but we won. On the flip side France actually defended very well and made it hard for us to create much.

If you look at last seasons 6N results you'll see how hard it is to win away from home. If we discount the Italy home defeats, which we should because they're crap, you'll see there was only one away victory in the entire tournament. That was England beating Wales in Cardiff. Every other game went in favour of the home side. It's extremely difficult to win away, but we've done just that. The performance wasn't great, but we'll improve. We also won't play a highly motivated French side at home again this year.

Cheer up.

molloyjh wrote: »

Do we need to look at our back row? Are they adding much to our attacking game at all? Would Stander, Leavy and Murphy be a better option? POM was better today than Stander, but Stander does the real dog fight blindside stuff well. What we need is a good link man (Leavy) and a good 8 too. I think Murphy would work better than Conan. POM on the bench. At the moment we don’t have much in the way of effective and/or dynamic carriers in there.

Our lineout wasn't the best today so I'd be wary of taking POM out of the equation in that respect especially if Ryan keeps Toner out of the team. Taking POM out just makes it weaker again.

I thought we were quite comfortable until France scored their try. Dominant may be a strong word but I feel that were were the better side at least. They didn't look like they knew how to break us down. Our defence was on top and didn't look like conceding kickable penalties. I'll have to watch again to see how we conceded that try, but my feeling at the time was that it was a bit of a fluke and went completely against the flow of the game.

NollagShona wrote: »

He scored the DG into the end I was sitting.

Thought Earlsy had a good match myself

Jaysus, were you at the game?!!

Think I'd like to see sob and leavy accommodated in the backrow(in our no injuries first choice hypothetical team) I don't think pom was up to it today or really ever is at the breakdown or carrying or making big hits in defense.

I think the game could have done with Dillane’s athleticism, especially as Ryan and Henderson weren’t getting much change out of the defence.
Leavy went very well when he came on, carried well and drive the French back repeatedly.

I don’t think joe will change much bar injuries anyway.

Sexton and Murray never controlled the game and that was a killer.

Owens was very poor, his standards have really slipped. He wasn’t interested in ensuring clean releases by the tacklers at all. Nothing much could be done for the HIA shenanigans though completely out of his hands.

That switch off for Kearney’s clearance kick was shocking.

Anyway, few thoughts on the game, and the consensus around here and other online channels.

Have to say I had a bit of a giggle to myself reading through posts on here, twitter, and whatsapp etc. after the Thomas try. The way people were going on you'd swear France had us over a barrel and were flogging us with those really hard baguettes with the dark crust and pointy ends and were were losing by 1,000 points. Like it or not, there is an unsavoury element to Irish fans that just love to stick the knife in, whether that's targeted at the team, Sexton, or Joe Schmidt it makes sad reading, until we win the game and then it's just funny.

There's two understandings of the game from what I can see; Ireland were rubbish and lucky to win, or that Ireland were utterly astonishing and the ABs wouldn't have done as good a job.

The truth however is in the middle.

Were we rubbish? Absolutely not. Were we amazing? Not exactly. But we were the better team, of that I have no doubt.

To be honest, we put in a very, very clever performance and it's something I thought we'd see before kick off. In every interview both staff and player commented on struggling to do their homework on the French side. They looked at Bordeaux, they looked at individual players, they looked at themselves. How to do prepare for a team you've never played in their back yard? You play simple, simple rugby. For me it was working too - it wasn't pretty, it wasn't sexy, but we were always comfortable until the 50th minute, then conditions worsened, mistakes were made and we then rather pull away we struggled to keep our noses infront. That 20 minute period was a poor one for us, but had we taken a few oppertunities prior to that the game would've been dead and buried in a very professional, tidy manner. Instead we have a lot of people complaining about our lack of creativity etc. This was not the game, not the team, not the conditions to be throwing the ball around and varying our play especially with a fairly new midfield.

No, we played in 3rd gear at most and that was the right plan. I have no doubt this Irish team has a few more gears left in them, put pushing for those gears against a passionate French team in Paris was not the place. People keep saying oh we never win in Paris because they used to be much better.. That's not true at all, the French have been poor for years and we've struggled over there the last few meetings. You can't decide a rugby match on odds or paper. The French are always passionate when they play against us. They may be in a period of issue right now but these are still big 16-20st players with good hands and good skills. Defensively very, very well drilled and a couple of danger men on turn over ball. Truth be told, France played very well today, but so did we. What we didn't do well is turn that good play into points.

I think we were extremely lucky today and overall it was a poor showing. Sexton Kick was pure class but france missed a gimme moments before which would have sealed it. In saying that England only scraped past France last year. They are always tricky even if they are a pale shadow of their brilliant past. Next weeks games are huge IMO.