This was not the Ireland we know, the side that attempts to eke out points through patient, structured means. Instead, they looked to out-French the hosts with their offloading game, running the ball from deep, and at times just plain chancing their arm. Despite the fact that their scrum was obliterated, they had so much more of the ball than their opponents and they barely kicked it at all.
It is not the way you are supposed to play France, of course. Turn the ball over and you are dead meat. And Ireland were exactly that — before staging one of the most remarkable fightbacks in this tournament’s history. When David Marty ran in for his second charge-down try early in the second half to make it 43-3, Ireland were just two points off their biggest ever score conceded to the French — 45-10 in Paris in 1996.
Nobody could have predicted what came next. Ireland scored four tries in the space of just 15 minutes. Some of the handling, especially during that breathless period, was of the highest quality. And while the French can claim they took their foot off the gas in the second half, perversely it is Ireland who will take more from the game.
Their start was simply woeful. Ireland simply failed to defend a routine threequarter line play off an early French scrum. Tommy Bowe can claim a degree of bad luck as he lost his footing in his rush to take Florian Fritz, ball and all. But even allowing for the fact that Fritz got the ball away, Aurélien Rougerie had a good deal still to do. He got around Geordan Murphy rather too easily. The game was just two minutes old.
The sickening aspect of Olivier Magne’s try was that it came after a period of intense Irish pressure. Having forced Jean-Baptiste Elissalde into knocking on in his own 22, Ireland were clearly in no mood to play for a settling three points. Off the scrum, they pounded the French line and when the penalty did come, Denis Leamy tapped and ran recklessly for the French line.
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It was a frantic and ultimately futile assault that ended when Ronan O’Gara’s pass went to ground.
But as soon as the Irish were ruing missed points, they had conceded seven needless ones at the other end. Murphy and Leamy collided on the floor in their attempts to gather Cédric Heymans’s long drop-out, allowing Frédéric Michalak to gather the loose ball and send Magne over.
A pattern soon emerged, with Ireland bloody-mindedly attempting to keep the ball alive, despite some gut-wrenching hits, most notably from Julien Bonnaire. And every time Ireland coughed the ball up, the French would score. The next giveaway was to Marty, who, spotting O’Gara had finally decided to kick for position, made the block and followed it up to make it 19-0.
There were near-misses, invariably involving Gordon D’Arcy, and an exquisite offload by O’Gara sent Bowe and then Brian O’Driscoll running free, but the French scrambled successfully.
Eventually, Ireland got some reward for their adventure as O’Gara kicked a straightforward penalty when the French went beyond the rear foot. But criminally, Ireland continued to shoot themselves in the foot.
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Malcolm O’Kelly made a mess of the restart reception and when Paul O’Connell held on in the tackle, Elissalde had an easy three points.
Just to rub it in, the French punished them once more before the break. It was an horrific moment for Murphy, who stared in disbelief as Heymans plucked his loose pass out of the air and then sprinted clear. The French, now 29-3 clear, did not go to sleep after the break — not just yet. Heymans’s second try was the closest they came to sheer brilliance. This time Rougerie powered through to Ireland’s 22 and when the ball emerged quickly, Elissalde produced a gem of a pass to send his wing over.
It descended into farce three minutes later as Marty repeated his trick of the first half, this time catching O’Gara’s kick cleanly and strolling under the posts. The obituaries were already being penned. But remarkably Ireland kept the faith and eventually it paid.
Gradually the cracks in the French side began to appear — there was only so much tackling that they could do, and it was understandable if they dropped the intensity.
When the Irish scores came, they came in an avalanche. First O’Gara trundled under the posts after a quick tap by the indefatigable Leamy, then D’Arcy slipped past Fabien Pelous on the outside. Soon it became clear that Ireland had more lung-power and stronger legs, not to mention interest and desire.
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After a desperate slice by Michalak, Donncha O’Callaghan bored his way over off Peter Stringer’s pass. That made it 43-24 with 12 minutes remaining on the clock.
At this stage, O’Driscoll was coming into his own, slicing down the middle twice and Andrew Trimble, on as a replacement for Bowe, trailed him on the second occasion to run in under the posts.
By now, the French were blowing hard, and relying heavily on their replacements — one illicit steal by Lionel Nallet under his own posts, some relieving kicks by Dimitri Yachvili.
For France, the end couldn’t come quickly enough; for Ireland, respectability, a new identity and the memory of an utterly disastrous first half.
STAR MAN: Julien Bonnaire (France)
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France: C Dominici; A Rougerie, F Fritz, D Marty, C Heymans; F Michalak (B Boyet 68min), J-B Elissalde (D Yachvili 60min); O Milloud (S Marconnet 60min), R Ibanez (S Bruno 47min), P de Villiers, F Pelous, J Thion, Y Nyanga (L Nallet 75min), O Magne (R Martin 60-78min), J Bonnaire
Ireland: G Murphy; S Horgan, B O’Driscoll (E Reddan 77min), G D’Arcy, T Bowe (A Trimble 65min); R O’Gara, P Stringer; R Corrigan (S Best 50min), J Flannery, J Hayes, M O’Kelly (D O’Callaghan 50min), P O’Connell, S Easterby, D Wallace, D Leamy