Ireland look to back up positives in French defeat with win in Italy
SHOWING UP: Ireland came within two points of France in a second half performance where they fought hard and did not give up. Pic: ©INPHO/Ben Brady
Happy, or sad? If this were a multiple choice exercise then Scott Bemand and his Ireland players would be forced to choose one or the other. Real life is messier so there was a mixture of emotions as they reflected on this opening Six Nations defeat in Belfast.
A slow start left them 14-0 down after 18 minutes and in a hole. They got busy digging. With 10 minutes to go Ireland were only two points adrift against a French team that had played for 20 minutes on the back of the red card for Gabrielle Vernier.
A first win against the French since 2017 was theirs for the taking. Another major step forward on the back of a 2024 season that brought to an end too many years of defeats and depression. A 12-point loss from there was distinctly harsh.
“The thing is not to get too ahead of ourselves knowing that we could have won,” said Edel McMahon. “It's actually still about showing up.
“We spoke a lot about how this game was going to pan out, the physicality that would be needed.
“You can talk and talk and talk, but if you don't action and do, you're not going to earn it. We knew we could have won that game, we still need to make sure we implement that plan. Believing is one thing, doing is another.”
Ireland committed ten handling errors, their passing was sloppy at times, there were poor kicks from hand and Dannah O’Brien failed with all three try conversions after scores from Aoife Wafer (2) and Neve Jones.
But there was so much ground for encouragement.
They lived with and, at times, outmuscled a bigger and physical French side on both times of the ball and especially in the maul, the scrum survived, the lineout is transformed under Alex Codling, and they showed real resilience in recovering from that poor beginning.
Wafer was, again, a sheer force of nature, in attack and in defence, and there is a consistency of selection emerging in individual units that should improve the game management and mutual understanding among a squad that is still quite young in terms of caps.
If Scott Bemand’s team was to lose this game to this opposition in this fashion in two years’ time, or even in a likely World Cup quarter-final meeting in England later this year, the spotlight would be far more searching, but momentum for now has been maintained.
There is, with that, the wider context in that most of the Irish players were making a jump up in standards to the highest Test level from a Celtic Challenge tournament that is still failing utterly to stress test them in their iterations as Wolfhounds and Clovers.
“We’re moving in the right direction,” said Bemand. “To close a gap takes a bit of time. France are still a good team and they have their pro league over there. We have moved forward. At times we are going to want more from the domestic competition so we can use that to continue our growth.
“But at this point in time, from where we were, we have used the time and we have four more games to go. We have to back up how we played [on Saturday] and back it up with some winning performances.”
That’s the key now.
Their only other home game in this Championship will be the round three encounter against England in Cork next month. Ireland will be competitive but the English remain by some stretch the best side in this competition and a win is unrealistic.
That leaves Ireland needing to find fortune on their three road trips, against Italy, Wales and Scotland. All three are within their compass but Wales and Scotland showed clear signs of improvement when facing off two days ago and Italy are no mugs either.
“The Italians have got a cultural identity in terms of how they play their game,” said Bemand. “The ball is going to move around a bit, they will test us with chip kicks and all that. We will embrace the challenge. We have a great week ahead of us.
“We will take the lessons from this. It’s fine. We’ve gone closer. It feels a bit like the Canada game in WXV where we felt we could have had something out of it. We will use the experience and try to close that gap faster than anybody else.”
S Flood; A McGann, A Dalton, E Higgins, AL Costigan; D O’Brien, E Lane; N O’Dowd, N Jones, L Djougang; R Campbell, D Wall; B Hogan, E King, A Wafer.
: E Breen for Higgins (45-52 and 68); C Moloney for Jones, E McMahon for Jones, F Tuite for Hogan, A Reilly for Lane (all 56); G Moore for Campbell (69); S McCarthy for O’Dowd and C Haney for Djougang (both 78).
M Bourgeois; M Llorens, N Konde, G Vernier, M Menager; C Arbez, P Bourdon Sansus; Y Brosseau, A Sochat, R Bernardou; M Feleu, M Fall; C Escudero, S Okemba, T Feleu.
E Boulard for Konde (34); A Chambon for Bourdon Sansus (52-62) and 69; M Bigot for Brosseau, A Mwaywembe for Sochat and C Joyeux for Bernardou (all 56); A Berthoumieu for Vernier and L Champon for Okemba (66); L Queyroi for Arbez (69).
H Davidson (SRU).
