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Ireland showed encouraging power, strength in depth and defensive fortitude but could do with honing their ruthlessness
Green wall: France's Gaël Fickou is tackled by Ireland's Caelan Doris and Andrew Porter. Photograph: Brian Lawless/PA A number of times physical demands were made on Ireland in the opening phase of their match against France.
They were asked whether they were going to be big enough to play international rugby at the high end. The team not only passed the test but came through with honours. France opened by launching Paul Willemse, Thibaud Flament, Charles Ollivon and tight head prop Uini Atonio at Ireland. as they flung their outsize bodies at the Irish players, they hoped to soften them up or punch through weak shoulders. One of the criticisms levelled at Ireland was that they are too small. But it didn’t work. South Africa will do the same when the teams meet in the World Cup. France were rewarded only with a Thomas Ramos penalty, not the sort of return they would have hoped for.Second wave: Ronan Kelleher was one of several players to make a big impact after being sprung from the bench for Ireland against France. Photograph: David Rogers/Getty Images When the Irish team met up in Dublin on Tuesday, coach Andy Farrell had to start the process of patching things up. Scrumhalf Jamison Gibson-Park, props Tadhg Furlong and Cian Healy, hooker Dan Sheehan and centre Robbie Henshaw were not available to him. The journey to France for the World Cup is, as Farrell described, one where players would not likely but definitely get injured, so those not usually starting would have to come into the team and maintain the level. That was shown to be the case and even as the bench emptied in the second half on Saturday as injuries forced Johnny Sexton, Rob Herring and Tadhg Beirne out of the game, the finishers finished. What an impressive final quarter from Ireland.Grounds for improvement: Ireland’s Conor Murray is prevented from touching the ball down behind the French try line. Photograph: Billy Stickland/Inpho One of the things you need to have when you are ranked the number one team in the world is a well-developed ruthless streak. The jury may still be out on that as Ireland crossed the French line on at least four occasions only for the ball to be held up. But when Uini Atonio was sinbinned for connecting with Rob Herring’s face with his shoulder, Ireland immediately went to work with the extra man before France could make an adjustment. Prop Andrew Porter scored within seconds of Atonio’s yellow card. The official time was: yellow card on 26 minutes and Porter’s try on 27 minutes. In that sense it was a good reaction but perhaps there is more work to do on the ruthless, killer ways of international rugby.Antoine decked: France’s Antoine Dupont is brought down by Josh van der Flier and Andrew Porter. Photograph: Dan Sheridan/Inpho You can read some things in a match any way you like. But when Thomas Ramos chose to kick a drop goal on 62 minutes to take the scores to 25-19 for Ireland, it could have been interpreted as the French fullback taking his team to within a converted try of Ireland’s score with just less than 20 minutes remaining in the match. Another way to look at it was France accepting that they were unable to break down the Irish defence, which was superb. It was France deciding that a better way to build the scoreboard would not be by scoring tries but by kicking points. A white handkerchief being waved? For all of their efforts France scored just one try, through Damian Penaud on 18 minutes.
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