A relieved Joe Schmidt hailed his Ireland team for dragging themselves out of a hole it had appeared for 70 minutes there was no danger of them tumbling into. “It’s pretty hard to explain how you feel when you think you’ve let the game slip and then suddenly you’ve grabbed it,” he said.
“I felt it was an incredible team effort to work your way up the pitch about 45 metres and then to add on to the end of it a 45-metre drop goal. It was inspirational, especially when so many had to be involved.”
Ireland’s patience and composure was, indeed, remarkable. They worked their way through some 40 phases during five minutes of nerve-shredding rugby in the relentless drizzle, at the end of which Johnny Sexton landed a fabulous drop goal. “When he struck the drop goal I was just willing it to have enough distance to get over. As a coaching staff we stood up as one and cheered with the other Irish supporters in the stadium.
“Johnny has hit a few drop goals in his time, but not many. And I don’t think he was really thinking too much about history, he just stepped and seized the moment and he did it with absolute aplomb.
“That’s credit to a man who was struggling a little with cramp and fatigue. But his clarity of thought and ability to win those big moments is second to none.”
Ireland had dominated, according to most of the statistics. “Having metrics in your favour doesn’t necessarily give you the one metric you want at the end of the day. Maybe people underestimate how hard it is to come here and win,” said Schmidt.
The game was not without controversy. Two French players, Matthieu Jalibert and Antoine Dupont, suffered serious knee injuries; their tournaments are probably over. “I cannot anticipate what the doctors are going to say but I believe it might be serious for them,” said Jacques Brunel, France’s new coach. “We’ll probably pay a very high price for this defeat.”
Despite the obvious agony of their knee injuries, both players were registered as head-injury assessments, conjuring memories of France’s win over Wales here last season. In Dupont’s case, the HIA meant France were able to return their starting scrum-half to the fray. “The HIA protocol was decided by the independent doctor,” said Brunel. “It wasn’t our decision. The players did have knee injuries, but the independent doctor decided on the HIA.”
