Ireland simply couldn’t cope with France’s power and their blistering athleticism
. The visitors’ half-backs, Pauline Bourdon and Carla Arbez controlled with the game with their vision and dynamism and Bourdon, especially, was unmanageable. She had two tries before half-time and would have had a third without a hugely generous pass to Gabrielle Vernier a couple of metres from the Irish line.
Young Dannah O’Brien did well on her debut at outhalf, and on a blustery afternoon her thoughtful, prodigious kicking provided Ireland with a reasonable share of field position in the first half. But Ireland’s visits to the French 22 were undone by bluntness or handling errors, or both. The most promising Irish move ended when O’Brien was isolated in contact just a couple of metres short of the French line and the ball was poached by the French hooker, Agathe Sochat, midway through the first half. That was the closest Ireland came to scoring a try.
The French prop Annaelle Deshaye was red-carded for a high tackle on Deirbhile Nic A Bhaird midway through the first half, but it didn’t change the momentum of the game. Within ten minutes Bourdon had crossed for both of her tries and by half-time France were 27-3 in front. In the second half France didn’t give Ireland a moment to breathe. Souchat scored their sixth try, after a devastating rolling maul, 14 minutes after the break, and they essentially set up camp in the Irish half after that. There was no way out.M Deely; A Doyle, A Dalton, V Irwin, N Behan; D O’Brien, M Scuffil-McCabe; L Djougang, N Jones, C Haney; N Fryday, S Monaghan; D Wall, G Moore, D Nic a Bháird.
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