Ireland beat France with authority at the start of the Six Nations

The first day of the Tournament Six Nations rugby delivered this Friday a complete victory Ireland on France, who finished with 14 men after the expulsion of the second row Paolo Willemse in the 32nd minute of the opening phase. The clover He won with great authority in Marseille by 38 to 17.

Despite not having its historical opening Jonathan Sexton Ireland proved to be a strong team and dealt another blow to France, who were eliminated in the quarter-finals of the 2023 World Cup which they hosted.

In Marseille – the Stade de France is unavailable because it is involved in the Olympic Games – France presented a very weak defense and worsened its chances when it lost Willemse.

Ireland began to dominate with 10 points, the result of a penalty scored by Jack Crowley and a try by Jamison Gibson-Park converted by Crowley himself. Thomas Ramos closed the gap for the Gallo XV with a penalty, but Ireland’s second try soon arrived, assisted by Tadhg Beirne and again sent between the posts by Crowley.

Andy Farrell’s team imposed its maximum aggression against a French defense that was losing ground. Nine minutes after French second row Willemse saw the red card for repeated rough tackles, Damian Penaud managed to hold and Ramos converted to take the set to 10-17.

Five minutes before the restart, Ireland scored their third try of the night – this time it was Calvin Nash – and Crowley’s conversion began to extend the lead. Despite being one less, the French did not stop fighting and got closer thanks to a fought try by Paul Gabrillagues (Ramos still relentless in his shot) which brought the result to 17-24.

There was more than half an hour to go and it looked like France wasn’t giving up. It was then that Ireland took their game a step further to capitalize on their superiority.

Dan Sheehan scored his try which Crowley completed to make it 17-31. It was Ronan Kelleher, with another try and Crowley’s conversion, who sealed the victory.

Ireland thus began in the best possible way the defense of the title won last year, when in Dublin they also beat France 32-19, a decisive result for the definitive resolution of the title including the Grand Slam.

In the last two editions of the tournament, a peculiarity occurred, namely that the winner of the corresponding duel between these two teams ended up becoming champion. The opening day ends on Saturday with Italy-England, in Rome, and Wales-Scotland, in Cardiff.

Source: agencies