Ireland vs. France: Winners and Losers from 2015 Six Nations Clash
Ireland secured an 18-11 win on Saturday over France in Dublin to go 2-0 in this year’s Six Nations Championship.
The result was also a mental boost for Paul O’Connell’s men before they meet again in the World Cup later this year.
This win was born of a pragmatism in approach that showcased yet again the ability of coach Joe Schmidt to adapt a plan to suit the occasion.
Ireland carried his instructions out to the letter and came out deserved winners over a nondescript French side.
Here are the winners and losers.
Winner: Jonny Sexton
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It is hard to recall a more accomplished display with the boot than that given by Sexton at the Aviva yesterday.
Not only did he kick all his goals, but his attacking kicking from hand was world-class. Barring a couple of slightly overcooked efforts, Sexton virtually made himself unplayable by pinning French backs to their touchlines, with the Irish chasers forcing them over the whitewash, as The Irish Independent’s Eamon Sweeney described: "Take something as simple as kick-offs. In the first half, Ireland switched their direction, sent Tommy Bowe in to contest the high ball, forced the recipient out over the line and generally treated them as an opportunity."
It was a performance in tune to a specific game plan to keep the ball away from France’s big tacklers and force them to play from deep.
Let’s also remember this was Sexton’s first game back after 12-week layoff following a concussion. He had Mathieu Bastareaud charging down his channel to deal with, and both men required the doctor’s attention to keep them on the field after a head collision.
Sexton stood up to everything France’s big blunt instrument had to offer and earned much-deserved praise from Sweeney:
"The Ireland out-half now possesses the same kind of stature in the Six Nations that Dan Carter once did in the Tri Nations. There is simply no-one else in the same class at number 10 in this part of the world…It was, quite simply, like watching an artist at work. Sexton finished with a match-winning total of five penalties and underlined his utter indispensability to the Irish cause.
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Loser: Pascal Pape
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French sportsmen have a habit of making villains of themselves against Irish opposition.
Joining Thierry Henry in the Irish hall of French shame is Pascal Pape.
The big lock got a yellow card for driving his knee into the back of a defence-less Jamie Heaslip in the second half.
It was an ill-timed loss of discipline as France began to turn the screw on the hosts, and it's one the second rower will regret.
Winner: Sean O’Brien
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Another Irish player with a long layoff behind him had a successful return.
Sean O’Brien played his first international for 15 months and showed his post-surgery shoulder can stand up to the rigours of the environment.
His 12 tackles, per ESPNScrum, were the third-most by an Irish forward, and his physicality in ball-carrying was evident in his two defenders beaten.
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Loser: French Flair Extinguished
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When France had to chase the game in the last 10 minutes, their desperation did not manifest itself in the kind of magic we have seen from French back lines of old.
When necessity becomes the mother of invention, rugby followers of the last three decades have feasted on the craft of blue-shirted backs who conjured scores like Serge Blanco’s in 1987, Philip Saint-Andre’s at Twickenham in 1990 and Jean-Baptise Lafond's in New Zealand in 1994.
It is a sad situation that a man on that list now coaches France and appears to have snuffed out any hope we have of seeing them score tries like that again. As they looked for a match-leveling try, passes were flung wide and went to ground or behind their targets.
The players looked incapable of sparking that moment of magic, and to say that of a group of Frenchmen so individually talented as these means something must be wrong. The Irish Independent’s Neil Francis summed it up thus:
"The truth has to be told: France have regressed to the point of ridicule. Their heritage has been betrayed and this was graphically illustrated when they went chasing the game in the last 15 minutes. Their backs are unable to observe the fundamentals of the passing game. None of them are able to put the ball out in front of its intended receiver. The timing of their passing is askew and they do not know when to pass or to hold on.
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Winner: Joe Schmidt
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Joe Schmidt has received a lot of credit for the job he has done since taking on the Irish job. His work was rewarded with just one defeat in 2014, and Ireland now have nine wins in a row.
On Saturday, we witnessed more of his tactical intelligence when he sent out a team with a game plan that was perfectly designed to topple France.
Les Bleus are all about power, so Schmidt told his team not to give them the chance to use it. Kicking was the order of the day—keeping the pill away from the clutches of the brutish French tacklers.
Ireland played very little by way of expansive rugby; the one opening they did fashion with ball in hand was fluffed a bit by a hard pass from Sexton to the on-rushing Jared Payne. No matter—the game plan worked like a dream.
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