Result never in doubt as French carve the openings

THE theory goes that hosting the French in a January opener is the best time to play them. This though, hinges on the proviso that you don't give them an early lead. Once the Irish under 21s committed this "cardinal error", as their coach Eddie O'Sullivan admitted, and the mid day Anglesea Road sun came out on their backs, the French were away.

A late try offered some consolation and a measure of respectability for Ireland's pugnacity, but the result was never really in doubt once the French had put 10 points on the board inside nine minutes. Confidence flowed through their veins, and the rugby flowed as only the French, seemingly, know how.

"Why can't we play like that?" is the popular refrain after such a spectacle, but it's probably something in the respective rugby playing cultures. That, or the water. These Les Bleus were much like any classical French side, their sleight of hand and angles of running behind the scrum constituting the biggest class divide of the game.

Ireland competed well enough - up front and won some good ball through John Gardiner, even if the towering Begles lock Mathieu Cadic lorded the French line out as well as poaching some of Frank Sheahan's wayward throwing. The Irish still won a fair share of set piece ball and even some useful ruck ball.

But generally, the French pack freed the ball quicker in the loose and whereas the Irish back play was comparatively ponderous and lateral, the French backs attacked the gain line. Running straight and moving the ball through the hands at arm's length in vintage French fashion, their backs came onto the pass from a variety of angles at pace, and whenever tackled, invariably made the ball available quickly.

Hence their continuity was a joy to watch and each of their five tries was superbly carved. Each of the backs also carried their own individual running threat, starting from elusive Castres scrum half Mathieu Lazerges out to rightwinger Benjamin Landhes, whose breaks from deep instigated the third and fifth tries.

For the first, out half Julien Berthe's long flat pass took out two opponents before Christophe Manas's scissors pass put Sebastien Roque in under the posts; Jimmy Marlu cut through an over stretched home defence opportunistically for the second, and brilliant, sustained support play amongst the backs and open side Guillaume Combes put the latter over for the fourth.

Given all of that, O'Sullivan was still correct in stating: "We defended well for long phases and when we got a bit of quality ball we showed what we could do." Indeed, Girvan Dempsey, centre Gareth Gannon, definitely one for the future, and the angular Ryan O'Neill both made dents in the French defence, as did the pick of the pack, flankers David Wallace and David Watt.

Dempsey briefly flickered Irish hopes when crashing over from Stephen Bell's tap penalty after 3 minutes to make it 13-8, but the game was up by the time the Terenure full back gave Andrew Park the chance to hand off Landhes and score in injury time.

As O'Sullivan also readily admitted: "On balance, we've no complaints. They were a superior aide on the day."