First Half
In complete opposition to how Ireland once won games, last night in St. Denis, the Irish rugby team lost the game due to complacency and unforced errors either side of the half time break.
Shortly before Wayne Barnes drew the first half to a close Vincent Rattez knocked through a grubber kick which Jacob Stockdale should have dived on as if it were a grenade in a trench – the Ulster winger-cum-full back, bent at the hips allowing the ball to bobble and bounce inside the 22 with plenty of French heft bearing down on it.
Stockdale can't take sole blame however as Caelin Dorris brought Wayne Barnes into the game when he tackled Francois Cros without the ball resulting in a penalty try being awarded to the French and 10 minutes in the bin for the Irish blind side.
Up until that point, Andy Farrells men had been leading 10-7, and despite some errors and some Gael Fickou brilliance, had control of the game.
The half time score of 17-13 to the French was not a fair representation of events of the field.
The score should have been different and easily could have been if Sexton had decided for a kick at the posts when it was on offer. Opting for the corner seemed an outrageous call when the team were no longer chasing a bonus point win to secure the tournament. The kick would not have been outside Sexton’s realm of expectation and Andy Farrell would have surely been content with seeing the half time score of 17-16 considering they just coughed up the penalty try.
Second Half
The second half started much the same as the first had ended. The surprise selection of Fickou on the wing bore fruit at the second time of asking when he chipped a kick over Sexton leaving Stockdale and Dorris to deal with the electric French half-back pairing of Dupont and Ntamack as the ball neared the try line. A superb bit of play by Dupont to keep the ball in play set up his outside man Ntamack leading to France extending their lead to 22-13 with 43 minutes played.
Ireland wouldn’t score again until the 59th minute when a piece of world class individual running from Robbie Henshaw saw him cross the white wash. Unfortunately, Ireland had offered France two kicks at goal in the interim – both of which were nailed by Ntamack.
With 20 minutes left to play Ireland trailed Fabien Galtier’s side by just 8 points.
20 minutes in test rugby is an eternity, and 8 points is nothing with how fast games can be flipped on their head. At this point in the game, getting the basics right, sticking your passes and keeping your discipline can win you the game. Unfortunately that’s not what happened.
The errors on display were the complete opposite to what we once knew this Ireland team to be capable of. As the pressure of chasing the game increased, the Irish skills started to fall apart at the seams. Balls not going to hand, passes too far ahead of their recipient and simple handling errors cost them dearly and stopped them building any momentum.
The death knell sounded on 71 minutes when Ntamack (similar to Fickou) pulled off the patented Stockdale chip and chase behind the rushing Irish defense, gathering his own ball and laying it off to Virimi Vakatawa to score under the posts. 35-20, ball burst game over.
With the clock in the red, Stockdale managed to show what he can do in attack from a position he has traditionally filled on the wing, touching down to put some respectability on the score line and bringing the deficit to 8 points, but when you need to win by 6 and end up losing by 8 a consolation score isn't worth much.
What's Next?
Attention now turns to the Autumn Nations Cup which is set to get underway from November 13th when Ireland host Wales in Dublin. The mini-tournament is set to replace the traditional battle of the hemispheres as we enter winter every year.
The world cup draw has been set with rankings being taken from January 1st 2020 so this tournament is open for experimentation with team selection.
Ireland will be bolstered by the return of Iain Henderson in the second row the recent omission of John Cooney could well be reversed and James Lowe will surely see his first game on the wing for Ireland and.
One wrinkle that's been added to the tournamnet getting underway is the covid-19 cases now in the Fiji camp where anywhere from 5 to 7 players have tested positive in their camp in Limoges.
Tournament organisers have issued a statement saying - “The Autumn Nations Cup testing oversight group has been notified of positive cases in the Fijian squad that have been placed in isolation as per required protocols. We are working closely with the Fijian rugby union and the FFR, given that Fiji’s base camp is in France, on appropriate measures and await further test results next week.”
It remains to be seen if their opening game with France on November 15th will go ahead.
