Round 2 of the 2022 Six Nations continued with Ireland’s trip to Paris to face France. With both teams winning comfortably in round 1, this looked like a potential early title decider.
The Irish came in without captain Jonathan Sexton, who was ruled out midway through the week, and soon found themselves down on the scoreboard as Antoine Dupont crossed for a try after less than 90 seconds, with Melvyn jaminet adding the conversion and a penalty soon after. After such a bad start, Ireland needed to get themselves into the game and did so in the best way from the restart, with Mack Hansen beating Jaminet to the ball and going over untouched, Carbery converting on his first Six Nations start. The game calmed down slightly after such a frantic start, but the game remained hugely physical and Les Bleus’ attack allowed Jaminet to stretch the lead with 3 more penalties for a 19-7 halftime lead.
Jaminet quickly added another penalty after the break, but when Andrew Porter won a penalty at the restart, Joey Carbery went to the corner and the Irish pack managed to dive Josh van der Flier over for a vital try, which Carbery converted, while Jamison Gibson-Park found and exploited a gap just minutes later for another 7 points. With the points margin having suddenly dropped from 15 points to 1, the French hit back and when they turned the Irish over on their own 5m line, Cyril Baille crashed over from short range. arbery cut the lead to 3 with a penalty as the game entered the final 10 minutes but with just minutes left a clever kick from Gaël Fickou put the French on the attack and though Jaminet was adjudged to have held the ball up over the line, an hand in the ruck from Caelan Doris allowed the fullback to kick the simplest of penalties and Les Bleus saw out the final minutes to keep their title hopes alive with a 30-24 victory, while Ireland were left to settle for a losing bonus point.
France
This was a huge performance from France, and while their attacking quality let to some beautiful tries, it was the defence that proved crucial, especially in the first half. Ever since Shaun Edwards made the move across the channel, Les Bleus have looked a different beast without the ball.
While the Irish did find a couple of chinks in the second half, the first half was a truly dominant display. Not only were they physical and trying to dominate the point of contact, they were also incredibly smart with the way they treated the breakdown. They picked their moments to attack the breakdown when they felt they could win the turnover, and held off when it wasn’t on, allowing them to spread the full team across the pitch while Ireland found themselves having committed multiple players to a non-existent ruck to secure quick ball.
And when they were spread in defence, they came up with pace and closed down all opportunities for the Irish. Take away one bad restart, one poor maul defence and one poorly guarded ruck and that French line isn’t troubled. But Because of those efforts, we all know that Shaun Edwards will expect better, and that’s why the French will continue to improve.
Ireland
It’s crazy to think that this was Joey Carbery’s first Six Nations start, but this also highlighted the big issue with this Ireland team. They will not win the big games without Jonathan Sexton.
Sexton is arguably a fantastic talent, but the reliance on him has left Ireland in an awful position where nobody has been given enough of a chance to played the position with any regularity and impose themselves in the squad. And that means that when Sexton is suddenly not available, nobody is able to adequately replace him.
With the World Cup pools already decided, the best thing that Ireland could do is rest Sexton for the rest of the season and let pick a pair of 10s to get all the minutes and develop with the team. That way even if anything happens to Sexton, their chances of progressing in the World Cup are still at a decent level. Otherwise, an injury to Sexton right before the tournament could see Ireland go from potential champions to missing out on the knockouts.
Eyes on the Ball 