news

prevent a third England championship in succession and regain the title Schmidt’s teams
won in his first two seasons at the helm in 2014 and 15.
The first of those had been secured with a dramatic victory in Paris and the second had
involved beating the French in Dublin in another game in which Ireland failed to score a try.
“I’ll take any omen we can get right now because I know how tough it can be,” Schmidt said,
before acknowledging that there are positives to take from a performance that did not
produce any clear-cut try-scoring opportunities.
This was hard-fought and dogged and those are qualities every bit as necessary to Six
Nations glory as the glamourous backline moves Ireland will look to create in better
conditions than those produced by the persistent rain which fell on Stade de France.
“When you have to fight as hard as we did today and we didn’t get the tries and you don’t
get the flash finish that you like, you have got to roll your sleeves up and work a little bit
harder to make sure you create those...
“...The longer and more attritional the game became it was just getting harder and harder.
there was a lot of one-out carries from them and we resorted to it as well as the game got
slower and the rucks got slower because as soon as you started to make two and three
passes you were getting knocked behind the advantage line and it was just too hard to work
from back there.”
Ireland must thank their lucky stars that when all other avenues have been blocked, they
have a player like Sexton to get the job done.
FRANCE:
G Palis; T Thomas, R Lamerat, H Chavancy, V Vakatawa; M Jalibert (A Belleau, 30), M
Machenaud (A Dupont, 68-76); J Poirot (D Priso, 55), G Guirado – captain (A Pelissié, 74),
R Slimani (C Gomes Sa, 55), S Vahaamahina, A Iturria (P Gabrillagues, 61), W Lauret (M
Tauleigne, 68), Y Camara, K Gourdon.
Replacement not used:
B Fall.
IRELAND:
R Kearney; K Earls, R Henshaw, B Aki, J Stockdale (F McFadden, 74); J Sexton, C Murray;
C Healy (J McGrath, 60), R Best – captain (S Cronin, 67), T Furlong (John Ryan, 70), I
Henderson, James Ryan (D Toner, 67), P O’Mahony, J van der Flier (D Leavy, 36), CJ
Stander.
Replacements not used:
L McGrath, J Carbery.
Referee:
Nigel Owens (Wales)
© Irish Examiner Ltd. All rights reserved