France vs Ireland – Report – Six Nations Championship 2024 – 2 Feb, 2024

Holders Ireland got off to the perfect start to the Six Nations by punishing a dismal France 38-17 with five tries at the Vélodrome after the Blues were reduced to 14 men in the first half on Friday.

Ireland already held a commanding lead when second-row Paul Willemse, returning to France after missing the Rugby World Cup through injury, was sent off after his second hit of the evening around half time. -play time.

They won thanks to tries from Jamison Gibson-Park, Tadhg Beirne, Calvin Nash, Dan Sheehan and Ronan Kelleher, and points from the boot of Jack Crowley.

France scored tries through Damian Penaud and Paul Gabrillagues, while Thomas Ramos scored seven points in a worrying defensive display from Fabien Galthie's side.

In a test between two teams whose high World Cup hopes were cruelly dashed in the quarter-finals last October, Ireland clearly showed they had recovered better.

France were without scrum-half Antoine Dupont, who switched to rugby sevens for the Paris Olympics, but his absence could not justify their mediocre performance.

“First and foremost, it's a win-win situation and our lineup, in particular, was world class today. It wasn't just the offensive lineup, it was the defensive lineup as well,” said Irish coach Andy Farrell.

“It's a good start. We have Italy next and getting a good start has always been a difficult task here. We've done it now, so we have to grow from that.”

France coach Fabien Galthie said it was “tough on the players” and the team had to “protect themselves”.

“We wasted a lot, we lacked speed,” Galthie said.

“We were prepared to put a lot of intensity into the game. We have to do better, offensively and defensively.”

It was Ireland's highest score against France and their biggest victory on French soil.

“We are very happy. It's never easy to win in France. We probably didn't expect to get such a high score but we are really happy. The atmosphere was absolutely mental, so everyone got into it contribution and it was fantastic. team performance,” said man of the match Joe McCarthy.

Crowley, taking over from the retiring Johnny Sexton, scored the first penalty early on as Ireland took the lead, with Willemse being sin-binned for a shoulder on prop Andrew Porter.

Ireland took advantage of the opportunity as Bundee Aki bulldozed through the defense to set up Gibson-Park for the first try.

A second came when Beirne ghosted Jonathan Danty to land between the posts.

Willemse was then sent off following another hit, this time on Caelan Doris, as the evening went from bad to worse for the hosts.

The unpredictable French scored a try thanks to Penaud, who dived for the 36th time with the Blues, moving to within two of the all-time French record held by Serge Blanco.

Ireland were merciless early in the second half when Nash touched down in the left corner after some hard work from the Irish attackers.

A pivotal moment came in the 53rd minute when Gabrillagues was awarded a try after a lengthy TMO review and Peter O'Mahony was shown a yellow card for a high kick.

Ireland were untroubled, however, as Sheehan added a fourth for the visitors and Crowley converted to restore a 14-point lead.

France missed an opportunity to halve their deficit and Ireland secured a no-nonsense victory thanks to Kelleher rubbing salt into the Blues' wounds with a late try.

“They were more efficient than us, there were 14 of us, it was tough. It’s difficult to analyze at the moment but the championship is long,” said French captain Gregory Alldritt.

Italy, hosts England and Wales, face Scotland on Saturday.