The players were limping away from this brutal encounter and the night had barely fallen in Dublin when Paul O’Connell was reminded of Ireland’s next obstacle in their quest to equal their record of 10 successive victories. England are in town the weekend after next for what promises to be the pivotal match of this season’s Six Nations.
Ireland’s captain was blunt. “There are a lot of things we have to improve on if we are to compete with England. It’ll be a massive challenge for us,” said O’Connell. “To come back from 10 points down like they did in Wales is the outstanding performance of the tournament. It’s not being downbeat. I’m delighted with this victory and we did some great things today but we let our momentum slip.”
O’Connell was being diplomatic but the Six Nations champions are only too aware that the last side to defeat them a year ago was England and also aware of what Stuart Lancaster’s team, and Owen Farrell in particular, did to them on a miserable Dublin afternoon two years ago. But, while this match lacked the pizzazz of England’s thumping of Italy on Saturday, Ireland have plenty of grounds for believing they can retain their title this spring.
The return of Jonathan Sexton was an unqualified triumph. Sexton’s comeback after 12 weeks following four bouts of concussion had dominated the buildup to the game. But it was not only his 15 points that secured the win. Sexton controlled the game as if he had never been away. George Ford is one for the future but the Racing Métro man who returns to Leinster this summer has no peers as a fly-half in Europe.
Moreover, Sexton survived the searching physical examination from France’s battering-ram centre Mathieu Bastareaud that Ireland knew was coming. The pair clashed heads early on when the Toulon heavyweight, now sporting a piratical beard, stormed towards the Irish line. But Sexton survived this and another collision early in the second half when he and Bastareaud left the field with blood pouring from head wounds.
Both of them returned, though, and although Bastareaud was prominent in France’s late assaults on the Irish line when their replacement lock, Romain Taofifénua, scored the game’s only try and the French briefly threatened a win they did not merit, Sexton played an important role in Ireland’s defensive efforts.
“Johnny had a few stitches when he left the field and he had a bit of a shiner. We did a concussion check on him as a precaution but when he had a go at the doctor with a few choice words, the doc confirmed that he was his old lucid self,” said Ireland’s head coach, Joe Schmidt. “The concern I have with Johnny, if it is one, is that he doesn’t give any quarter. He won’t back off. He’s a super competitor and his defence was outstanding.”
Schmidt has a new injury concern with Jamie Heaslip, another Lion returning to the side, receiving a knee in the back from France’s lock Pascal Papé. The No8, though, should recover for the England match and he will be a vital figure along with two other hardcore forwards returning from injury, Sean O’Brien and Cian Healy, in what should be quite a collision with the English pack.
France, in contrast, have little chance of putting a spoke in the wheel of England’s chariot when the sides meet at Twickenham on the final weekend of the tournament if they continue to play like this. No wonder their coach, Philippe Saint-André, preferred not to discuss France’s next meeting with Ireland in the World Cup this autumn.
Saint-André has opted to select players in form in the Top-14, which is entirely as it should be, but the cash-rich French league is not paying too many dividends to the national side at the moment. The coach is playing his 14th half-back combination in Rory Kockott and Camille Lopez, and in Clermont’s Lopez he seems to have a fly-half who can control an international.
But Lopez was eclipsed by Sexton on this occasion and, when the Frenchman missed a late penalty and conversion that could have helped rescue a lost cause, the crowd in this futuristic stadium knew that Ireland were on their way to their first victory over the French in Dublin for 12 years. “We showed what we could do in the last 30 minutes but we were too far behind by then,” said their captain, Thierry Dusautoir.
France, too, could not avoid the subject of concussion that has overshadowed the first fortnight of the tournament. Saint-André said that Wesley Fofana did not suffer concussion when he left the field in the first half but that his South African-born full-back Scott Spedding has been concussed. Spedding looks certain to miss France’s next game against Wales while Sexton’s Racing Métro club-mate Teddy Thomas, who limped off in a lot of pain, will also be a doubt for next week’s meeting in Paris.
Ireland Kearney; Bowe, Payne, Henshaw, Zebo; Sexton, Murray; McGrath (Healy, 62), Best (Cronin, 73), Ross (Moore, 62), Toner (Henderson, 74), O’Connell (capt), O’Mahony, O’Brien, Heaslip (Murphy, 60).
Sin-bin Best, 61.
Pens Sexton 5, Madigan.
France Spedding (Talès, 53); Huget, Bastareaud, Fofana, Thomas (Lamerat, 32); Lopez, Kockott (Parra, 65); Ben Arous (Atonio, 50), Guirado (Kayser, 50), Slimani (Debaty, 50), Papé (Taofifénua, 64), Maestri, Dusautoir (capt), Le Roux, Chouly (Goujon, 73).
Sin-bin Papé, 5.
Try Taofifénua. Pens Lopez 2.
Referee W Barnes (England).
Att 50,000.
