Ireland v France, Saturday, February 25

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2017 Saturday, February 25

Aviva Stadium, 4.50pm (live RTÉ Two/UTV/ITV/DMAX/FR2/RTÉ Radio 1)

IRELAND: Team to be confirmed

FRANCE: (from 15 to 1): Spedding - Huget, Lamerat, Fickou, Nakaitaci -  Lopez,  Serin - Picamoles, Gourdon, Le Roux - Maestri, Vahaamahina - Slimani, Guirado (cap), Baille

subs: Tolofua, Atonio, Ben Arous, Le Devedec, Ollivon, Machenaud, Chavancy, Camara.

Referee: Nigel Owens (Wales)
Assistant Referees: Wayne Barnes, Luke Pearce (both England)
Television Match Official: George Ayoub (Australia)

Head-To-Head:

Played - 95
Ireland Won - 32
France Won - 56
Drawn - 7

Ireland v France - Results Since 2000:

2000: Ireland won 27-25, Paris
2001: Ireland won 22-15, Dublin
2002: France won 44-5, Paris
2003: Ireland won 15-12, Dublin; France won 43-21, Melbourne
2004: France won 35-17, Paris
2005: France won 26-19, Dublin
2006: France won 43-31, Paris
2007: France won 20-17, Dublin; France won 25-3, Paris
2008: France won 26-21, Paris
2009: Ireland won 30-21, Dublin
2010: France won 33-10, Paris
2011: France won 25-22, Dublin; France won 19-12, Bordeaux; France won 26-22, Dublin
2012: 17-17 draw, Paris
2013: 13-13 draw, Dublin
2014: Ireland won 22-20, Paris
2015: Ireland won 18-11, Dublin; Ireland won 24-9, Cardiff
2016: France won 10-9, Paris

This is one of the worst first quarters I have seen from Ireland.

Good interplay between Sexton and Ringrose - that's more like it.

How many times have France been allowed to carry the ball back into the 22 and kick straight to touch?

hmmmmmm, double movement?

nathan wrote:hmmmmmm, double movement?

Hows it a double movement? You're allowed to place the ball

but you can't push off with your feet or knees again. he used his feet to propel himself forward

certainly looking better by Ireland now

Although Ireland are the better team by a margin, am happy that their arrogance of not taking the 3 points is not paying out.

Are Ireland softening France up???

...........

French players are on the ropes though. Will probably get ugly in the 2nd half.

We are clearly going for the bonus point. Now if we could actually back up that ambition with scores.

whocares wrote:Although Ireland are the better team by a margin, am happy that their arrogance of not taking the 3 points is not paying out.

Arrogance to play a game to win it? France are too good a side to miss the opportunity of getting as many points as you can if up there. The gamble was worth it if the execution at times was.....................

Kearney needs to try to do more than rush for the nearest turf of grass. Head up! Try and grap an extra few metres.

SecretFly wrote:

whocares wrote:Although Ireland are the better team by a margin, am happy that their arrogance of not taking the 3 points is not paying out.

Arrogance to play a game to win it?  France are too good a side to miss the opportunity of getting as many points as you can if up there.  The gamble was worth it if the execution at times was.....................

That's 9 points you left here. So if you want to win the game that was surely the easier route.

Great game so far. although i did think that connar Murrys should have been disallowed.

Looked to me like a double movement.

Looking forward to the second half. see if France can come back and win it in the death.

Ireland must be very confident of beating eng at home to win the 6N at the end of the tourney. It there is any time and team they will storm it then it is eng at the end of the 6n during St Patricks.

whocares wrote:

SecretFly wrote:

whocares wrote:Although Ireland are the better team by a margin, am happy that their arrogance of not taking the 3 points is not paying out.

Arrogance to play a game to win it?  France are too good a side to miss the opportunity of getting as many points as you can if up there.  The gamble was worth it if the execution at times was.....................

That's 9 points you left here. So if you want to win the game that was surely the easier route.

Nah.., I'm a big gamble man on the corner.  It's easy to say it was points missed but if it worked it wouldn't have been  Thankfully the game doesn't happen in hindsight.  Our execution is letting us down sometimes and of course - the bloody French getting in our way.

Messy game - not one for the neutrals that like shiny stuff I'm sure, but I'm of course on the edge of my seat.

Hugely frustrating. There was acres of space out left on a few occasions but as per usual any kind of variation goes out the window when Ireland get near the line.

Great to see POM back in the Six Nations.

Hendy manhandling Picamoles. Freak.

Ireland looking favourites for the title.  Eng and Scot behind them.

trebellbobaggins wrote:Ireland looking favourites for the title.  Eng and Scot behind them.

Not sure I'd go that far on today's performances. Ireland have done well but poor decision making and sloppy errors have stopped France getting any sort of foothold.

they are the home team. they will surely fancy beating eng this time.

will be interesting if eng can stay unbeaten (Scotland will have something to say about that). will be one hell of a match.

No question about Murray getting the MOM. Great 2nd half from him.
This game was not even a contest. Ireland didn't have to try too hard once they got the scoreboard ticking. France attack was abject...

Fairly grinding win, bar a few end to end pasages. It is miserable in Dublin though to be fair. I'll never understand Ireland's exit strategy of having Murray box kick the ball into touch 10-15metres upfield and keeping the team under pressure. Particularly when contrasted with Spedding clearing to halfway.

Hardluck France, as ever cheers whocares for representing France on here, otherwise we would be talking to ourselves more than usual..

Pros - Halfbacks, some decent offloading, centres showed huge heart, i like that we wanted to go for tries throughout
Cons - that first 20mins, back three poor enough, set piece was rocky at times, and our ball protection in the ruck was the worst I've seen from a Schmidt team. Also super narrow in attack towards end of game, we looked unfit.

Wild that was our biggest winning margin against france in the championship in +30 years, so with that in mind, good win and result. If we were more clinical there were a few more scores in us though.

Okay, the conditions weren't ideal so you have to keep that greasiness in mind with both sides.  France I feel played a much better game than at home against Scotland.  I knew they'd be more pragmatic but even then, I think that game was much closer than whocares says.   Crazy defending from Ireland in that wild period and a little more luck on their side and France were in.

I'd have to agree with Engine in both his recent posts though - yeah, that unwillingness to play wider quicker is I suppose considered as lowering the risks, but that scoreline was risky enough even playing the supposedly safer stuff and it's a bugger on the forwards.

Conor had a great game.

Congrats to Ireland, a tough game but you stuck in there till the end.

Very hard luck to France. Disapline let you down at crucial time's.

Who got MOM?

Murray

Well that ended up going a bit the way I'd imagined via the odd exotic detour. The French are a hard slog to beat and the second half was a very professional effort in general, especially the first part of it, where Jonny bossed the thing as if he'd never been away.

Couple of random observations - I hope this turning up for games twenty minutes late against good sides isn't going to become an enduring habit; Scotland ran us ragged in Edinburgh for the first quarter and France missed a huge opportunity to do the same today while our back three, who had apparently never met before, were introducing themselves to each other.

Which leads me to a second point, namely Simon Zebo. He's a bit of a Maserati, in my view, fabulous with an open road in front of him but also an expensive luxury who is next to useless in heavy traffic. I can't help averting my eyes when he has any defensive duties to perform and I'm starting to wish him to the bench where he can both function as a broken field impact player and give my nerves less of a jangling for an hour.

Otherwise, top effort from the whole pack, notably the back row, the set pieces were excellent and our half backs and Ringrose were outstanding, I thought. I'd like to think that we still have gears to show but we're not going to get away with starting in neutral again. Can someone fire Ireland up before the kick-off in Cardiff, please, rather than when we're somewhere between six and twelve points down?

majesticimperialman wrote:Great game so far. although i did think that connar Murrys should have been disallowed.

Looked to me like a double movement.

Looking forward to the second half. see if France can come back and win it in the death.

I think he was allowed the double movement because when the initial tackle went in there was a player under Murray do he didn't hit the ground.In order for a tackle to be complete a knee has to be on the ground.

That's what Owens seemed to be saying. Not sure of the rule but it makes sense to me that you can fight to get to ground, otherwise every tackle would become a maul.

Decent win but disappointing not to take more points in Frances half - 5 points was there for the taking but we were very sloppy at the breakdown.

A bonus point win would have as good as rapped up the title but will just have to rack one up against England now.

Murray and Sexton a class apart. Big games from Best and Henshaw too.

rodders wrote:
Murray and Sexton a class apart. Big games from Best and Henshaw too.

Thought Henderson made an impact when he came on, played like he had a point to prove

Earls really is at a loss though when defending out wide and doesn't know whether to commit or drift so runs backwards instead

marty2086 wrote:

rodders wrote:
Murray and Sexton a class apart. Big games from Best and Henshaw too.

Thought Henderson made an impact when he came on, played like he had a point to prove

Earls really is at a loss though when defending out wide and doesn't know whether to commit or drift so runs backwards instead

Agree on Hendo.

Not so sure about Earls, I think Ringrose is struggling defensively and our Wingers are having to cover. I think Payne will return if he's fit because he leads the defensive line.

rodders wrote:

marty2086 wrote:

rodders wrote:
Murray and Sexton a class apart. Big games from Best and Henshaw too.

Thought Henderson made an impact when he came on, played like he had a point to prove

Earls really is at a loss though when defending out wide and doesn't know whether to commit or drift so runs backwards instead

Agree on Hendo.

Not so sure about Earls, I think Ringrose is struggling defensively and our Wingers are having to cover. I think Payne will return if he's fit because he leads the defensive line.

I left out Ringrose he is being exposed but Earls is failing to make a decision on what to do so just runs backwards. He did it against Scotland and on Saturday he had Nakataici and Spedding running at him so just retreated it means the player doesn't have to make a decision and can just run it, Trimble and also Zebo make the tackle on most occasions or drift and trust the cover behind but Earls is afraid of making the wrong decision

rodders wrote:Decent win but disappointing not to take more points in Frances half - 5 points was there for the taking but we were very sloppy at the breakdown.

A bonus point win would have as good as rapped up the title but will just have to rack one up against England now.

Murray and Sexton a class apart. Big games from Best and Henshaw too.

I don't think we will need a BP win v England. We will just need to win by 8 points or more which is doable at home. We won 19-9 last time we played England at home.

England are unlikely to reel in our points difference. Supposing we beat Wales by 1 point England will have to beat Scotland by 30 points to equal Ireland's points difference.

They will then have to beat Scotland by 47 points plus for Ireland to need to win by more than 8 points in the final game. That is quite unlikely as they have never defeated Scotland by more than 40 points and this is a good Scotland team.

Basically if Ireland beat Wales without a BP and England win with a BP as expected Ireland will need a 8 point win. If England win without a BP then any win will do for Ireland assuming they beat Wales.

And there's a game to win between there and now.

Yeah true enough, a bonus point win against Wales should do it.

No 7&1/2 wrote:And there's a game to win between there and now.

No sh1t Sherlock

If England win on the last day with a losing BP it will make the BP system look pretty stupid IMO.

It's reminded you to change your post and come off slightly less arrogant guns.

No 7&1/2 wrote:It's reminded you to change your post and come off slightly less arrogant guns.

No your post had nothing to do with me changing my post. It was about assessing all potential scenarios Ireland can win on the last day.

Don't get so huffy when someone points out your incomplete post while you have a think about what you really wanted to say then.

No 7&1/2 wrote:Don't get so huffy when someone points out your incomplete post while you have a think about what you really wanted to say then.

Stop being a parasite.

GunsGermsV2 wrote:

rodders wrote:Decent win but disappointing not to take more points in Frances half - 5 points was there for the taking but we were very sloppy at the breakdown.

A bonus point win would have as good as rapped up the title but will just have to rack one up against England now.

Murray and Sexton a class apart. Big games from Best and Henshaw too.

I don't think we will need a BP win v England. We will just need to win by 8 points or more which is doable at home. We won 19-9 last time we played England at home.

England are unlikely to reel in our points difference. Supposing we beat Wales by 1 point England will have to beat Scotland by 30 points to equal Ireland's points difference.

They will then have to beat Scotland by 47 points plus for Ireland to need to win by more than 8 points in the final game. That is quite unlikely as they have never defeated Scotland by more than 40 points and this is a good Scotland team.

Basically if Ireland beat Wales without a BP and England win with a BP as expected Ireland will need a 8 point win. If England win without a BP then any win will do for Ireland assuming they beat Wales.

I think there is a very good chance that Scotland will beat in England and with Italy to play they could be in with a shout.

I think we'll beat Wales comfortably enough and maybe take 5 points.

Stop being overly aggressive guns. You'd surely admit that your first version of your post comes across that Wales weren't even a consideration . I based my post on that.

rodders wrote:

GunsGermsV2 wrote:

rodders wrote:Decent win but disappointing not to take more points in Frances half - 5 points was there for the taking but we were very sloppy at the breakdown.

A bonus point win would have as good as rapped up the title but will just have to rack one up against England now.

Murray and Sexton a class apart. Big games from Best and Henshaw too.

I don't think we will need a BP win v England. We will just need to win by 8 points or more which is doable at home. We won 19-9 last time we played England at home.

England are unlikely to reel in our points difference. Supposing we beat Wales by 1 point England will have to beat Scotland by 30 points to equal Ireland's points difference.

They will then have to beat Scotland by 47 points plus for Ireland to need to win by more than 8 points in the final game. That is quite unlikely as they have never defeated Scotland by more than 40 points and this is a good Scotland team.

Basically if Ireland beat Wales without a BP and England win with a BP as expected Ireland will need a 8 point win. If England win without a BP then any win will do for Ireland assuming they beat Wales.

I think there is a very good chance that Scotland will beat in England and with Italy to play they could be in with a shout.

I think we'll beat Wales comfortably enough and maybe take 5 points.  

Weve already seen the dangers of assuming teams will roll Italy over.

No 7&1/2 wrote:Stop being overly aggressive guns. You'd surely admit that your first version of your post comes across that Wales weren't even a consideration . I based my post on that.

Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

Hey that's not fair, if England knew Italy weren't going to ruck they'd have put 70 points on them..
'