At a rocking Aviva Stadium, the first penalty of the game went the way of Ireland as Antoine Dupont strayed offside on five minutes. The volume increased when Sam Prendergast nudged the ball into the corner and Caelan Doris got over the line. However, the Ireland captain could not ground the ball and France survived the early onslaught. Prendergast asked for the tee on ten minutes from 40 metres but, from straight in front, his effort rattled the post and the scoreboard operator was untroubled again.
Despite the hosts’ fast start, a loose pass from Hugo Keenan after a big hit from Dupont looked to have spelled trouble on 14’. Damien Penaud broke away and found Dupont to streak under the posts to the delight of the swathes of visiting supporters. However, that try was chalked off too as a French hand had nudged the ball forward in the build-up.
At the halfway mark of the first half, referee Angus Gardner was reaching for his pocket as Joe McCarthy pulled back Thomas Ramos as he tried to run a support line and Les Bleues made the Irish pay with the man advantage immediately. From the resulting penalty, Dupont broke off the maul and gave the clinical Louis Bielle-Biarray one of the easiest finishes he’ll ever have in the corner. Ramos missed the difficult conversion but things would get much worse soon after for Fabein Galthie’s men as the talismanic Dupont was forced off with a knee injury on the half hour mark.
Ireland finally got off the mark on 34’ with a Prendergast penalty but that was immediately wiped out by Ramos after an Irish indiscretion from the kick off. However, Prendergast landed another three-pointer from right on halfway with the last kick of the half to send the teams in at 6-8 in favour of France after a nip and tuck first 40.
If the first half was tight, the second exploded into life with Ireland taking their first – and, ultimately, only, lead of the afternoon just three minutes after the restart. Off a maul, it was, predictably, Dan Sheehan who got the ball down and the lead was extended to three thanks to Prendergast’s brilliant touchline conversion.
However, this only seemed to jolt France into life and some wonderful handling ended with openside Paul Boudehent crashing over for a converted score. However, the story of that try would not end there as Ireland were dealt a further pair of blows. First, Calvin Nash was sin binned for a head-on-head clash with Pierre-Louis Barassi in the build-up before a contentious TMO decision went against them. While most connected with Ireland believed Thibaud Flament had interfered with Peter O’Mahony illegally, the officials deemed it a fair challenge.
With the howls of derision still raining down from the stands at the Aviva Stadium, things got worse as that man Bielle-Biarray took advantage of the space left by the departed Nash to get on the end of his own kick through as he dived on the ball just before it went dead. That is despite his teammate Maxime Lucu’s attempts to seemingly beat him to it.
A couple of Ramos penalties continued to edge France further ahead before the crucial bonus point was reached on the hour mark thanks to Oscar Jegou. The back rower had actually come on in the centre for Barassi owing to France’s much-discussed 7-1 bench split but his try was that of a flanker as he powered over from close range. The home support looked stunned and their team did too for a while but they went on the attack desperate for a way back into the game.
After Conor Murray – making his last home appearance for his country – was held up over the line, Francois Cros was yellow carded. With the French defence creaking it looked as though a try was destined to come but when it’s not your day, it’s not your day and Romain Ntamack picked off Prendergast’s pass under his own posts and made it to halfway before offloading to the pacier Penaud to finish the job with a swan dive under the posts.
Incredibly, that made it 13-42 in favour of France and their fans were having a party in the stands. There was still time for a moment to savour for the home side as Cian Healy, also on his final home cap got over for a wonderfully-received try as did his Leinster teammate Jack Conan to put some respectability on the final score of 42-27 to the French.
However, Le Marseillais echoed around the Aviva Stadium and will no doubt be the soundtrack of the upcoming Dublin evening.
