Six Nations 2024: ‘We expect to perform on the big stage and it doesn’t really get any bigger than this one’

The magnitude of the task facing Ireland when they enter Marseille’s Stade Vélodrome on Friday night (kick-off 9pm local time/8pm Irish) is perhaps becoming more apparent as this huge Six Nations opener between the last two Grand Slam-winning champions looms closer into view.

France may be as wounded as Ireland and may also be without their main man, but the bottom line is that, as much as anyone, Irish sides have found it hard to beat Les Bleus on their own soil.

To put this in perspective, since 1972, Ireland have won just three times in 27 games away to France, drawing once and losing the other 23. Those three victories, in 2000, 2014 and 2018, were by winning margins of two points.

Ronan O’Gara appreciates the scale of Ireland’s task as much as anyone. Part of the winning side on his first Test against France in 2000 and in the 2012 draw on his last game against them in Stade de France, in between those matches O’Gara was on losing Irish sides seven times in succession.

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The La Rochelle head coach reckons that a win on Friday night would rank as one of the great Irish victories, and Ireland head coach Andy Farrell concurred, while also embracing the challenge with typical enthusiasm.

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“I think so,” he said in agreement with O’Gara, “as in we all realise it’s a huge game. It’s mouthwatering, isn’t it? It will be a great game to watch, there’s no doubt about that and the stadium, the atmosphere, it being the first game of the Six Nations after a World Cup, if you can’t get excited about that as I keep saying, you’re in the wrong place.

“For us, it’s just living up to our own expectations, we expect to perform on the big stage and it doesn’t really get any bigger than this one.”

Compelled to throw Jack Crowley and Calvin Nash into the fray, Farrell has also decided to reward Joe McCarthy’s burgeoning form since the World Cup by granting a first Six Nations start to him as well. With Robbie Henshaw coming in for the injured Garry Ringrose, it means a total of four changes to the starting XV which lost against New Zealand in the quarter-finals.

Young Big Joe, as the head coach once called him admiringly, is the form lock in the country and has put together a string of big performances that made him impossible to ignore. He’s still liable to concede an unnecessary penalty or two, but the 22-year-old brings plenty of mobility as well as ballast. His energy and slightly mad youthfulness could have a positive effect on the team.

As a consequence, Iain Henderson has missed out altogether, meaning no Ulster player in the 23, while James Ryan is confined to place on the bench, as he was in the final pool game against Scotland before missing the World Cup quarter-final with a wrist injury.

Cian Healy and the in-form Ryan Baird are also restored to a bench with plenty of oomph to counter the French and where for the first time Ireland have opted for a 6-2 split, partially helped by Ciarán Frawley’s versatility, albeit there’s always a certain gamble to this choice.

Farrell acknowledged this game is a particularly big ask for Crowley. Previously, Ireland have introduced outhalves such as David Humphreys, O’Gara himself, and Johnny Sexton as backup to experienced players, and have assumed the jersey over a period of time. Not since O’Gara’s debut against Italy in March, 2000 has Ireland gone into a Six Nations with such a relatively callow outhalf as Crowley, who was less than two months old that day.

The 24-year-old has started just three of his nine Test starts to date, but Farrell maintained he would not have preferred the talented Cork player to have had more caps under his belt.

“No, because it is what it is. You can’t just say that it’s just down to experience. It’s down to performing when you get the chance isn’t it? Someone like Jack and Ciarán Frawley, Harry [Byrne] not as much because he’s been injured quite a bit, they’ve had plenty of opportunities to show in camp that they’re capable of taking the jersey.”

Leinster’s decision to completely overhaul their defence under Jacques Nienaber doesn’t look helpful, but Farrell maintained: “They know how Simon [Easterby] wants them to defend. Every single time players come back into camp, we ask them: ‘What have you been up to and what can we learn?’ How’s it going to benefit us and what’s their take on things. We work things out together.”

“You’re always trying to improve and get better. Defence is a nice form of attack, isn’t it? To get the ball back. That’s what it’s about, we don’t want to be defending for 30 phases and letting teams softly go down the touchline or over the gainline, it’s something that every team is trying to do, but it’s always something we’re striving to get better at.”

Fabien Galthié has also stayed loyal to the core of his French side and, in the fallout of their heartbreaking quarter-final loss to South Africa, appears to be under greater pressure to win. But Farrell countered: “Whether the pressure is on them is irrelevant to us. We’ve got to put that pressure into reality within a game of 80 minutes. Whether they’re feeling that or not, it’s up to us to put the pressure on when it really matters and that’s on Friday night.”

Either way, a winning start would set Ireland up nicely. “It’d help,” said Farrell. “It’d help everyone. That’s the expectation that we want of ourselves, a good start, but a good performance is just as important.

“But we all know what the Six Nations is like, it will start shaping itself after round one.”

IRELAND: Hugo Keenan (Leinster); Calvin Nash (Munster), Robbie Henshaw (Leinster), Bundee Aki (Connacht), James Lowe (Leinster); Jack Crowley (Munster), Jamison Gibson-Park (Leinster); Andrew Porter (Leinster), Dan Sheehan (Leinster), Tadhg Furlong (Leinster); Joe McCarthy (Leinster), Tadhg Beirne (Munster); Peter O’Mahony (Munster, capt), Josh van der Flier (Leinster), Caelan Doris (Leinster).

Replacements: Rónan Kelleher (Leinster), Cian Healy (Leinster), Finlay Bealham (Connacht), James Ryan (Leinster), Ryan Baird (Leinster), Jack Conan (Leinster), Conor Murray (Munster), Ciarán Frawley (Leinster).

FRANCE: Thomas Ramos (Toulouse); Damian Penaud (Bordeaux-Bègles), Gael Fickou (Racing 92), Jonathan Danty (La Rochelle), Yoram Moefana (Bordeaux-Bègles); Matthieu Jalibert (Bordeaux-Bègles), Maxime Lucu (Bordeaux-Bègles); Cyril Baille (Toulouse), Peato Mauvaka (Toulouse), Uini Atonio (La Rochelle); Paul Gabrillagues (Stade Francais), Paul Willemse (Montpellier); Francois Cros (Toulouse), Charles Ollivon (Toulon), Gregory Alldritt (La Rochelle, capt).

Replacements: Julien Marchand (Toulouse), Reda Wardi (La Rochelle), Dorian Aldegheri (Toulouse), Romain Taofifenua (Lyons), Cameron Woki (Racing 92), Paul Boudehent (La Rochelle), Nolann Le Garrec (Racing 92), Louis Bielle-Biarrey (Bordeaux-Bègles).

Referee: Karl Dickson (England).