Andy Farrell’s reaction to Ireland's record rout of France
Andy Farrell hailed Ireland’s ruthlessness and composure after their Guinness Six Nations title defence was launched with a record-breaking five-try demolition of 14-man France.
The reigning Grand Slam champions propelled themselves into pole position for further championship glory by dismantling the ragged pre-tournament favourites 38-17 in Marseille.
Ireland’s bonus-point success, secured by tries from Jamison Gibson-Park, Tadhg Beirne, Calvin Nash, Dan Sheehan and Ronan Kelleher, plus 13 points from Jack Crowley, was their largest winning margin away to France.
Les Bleus’ quest for victory at a largely subdued Stade Velodrome was damaged by the 32nd-minute dismissal of lock Paul Willemse.
“We’d take any type of win here in Marseille to kick off the Six Nations but the more the game was going on, the more you saw a performance building,” said head coach Farrell.
“I thought we got exactly what we deserved in the end.
“Our composure, it wasn’t all singing all dancing and the French side was always going to pose questions and the crowd was always going to get behind them.
“But we managed to silence them quite a lot through good composure.
“The main thing for me would be our ability to stay on it for the full 80 minutes and keep attacking the game.
“When you’re playing against 14 men for a long period, sometimes subconsciously you tend to shut up shop a little bit more.
“I thought our intent was pretty good and we were pretty ruthless when we needed to be, then obviously on top of that I thought our line-out in attack and defence was outstanding.”
Both sides came into a mouth-watering tournament curtain-raiser on the back of agonising World Cup quarter-finals exits.
Ireland began in the ascendancy but received a helping hand from the indiscipline of Willemse, who was sent off in the 32nd minute following a high hit on Caelan Doris having previously been sin-binned for a similar challenge on Andrew Porter.
Scores either side of half-time from Damian Penaud and Paul Gabrillagues and seven points from the boot of Thomas Ramos gave the hosts hope but Farrell’s men were a class above.
New Ireland captain Peter O’Mahony, who spent a spell in the sin bin in the aftermath of Gabrillagues’ try for bringing down the maul, said: “I don’t think it gets any better really.
“With the stress of the last couple of days I’d have given the whole lot up for a win tonight.
“Away from home, first game up, Friday night, Marseille, the Velodrome, I’d have been a happy man packing the whole lot in tomorrow morning if you’d given me the chance to take a win.
“It’s the biggest margin that we’ve beaten France by.
“I remember as a young fella watching Irish teams and you’d be hoping that they’d hang on in there, whereas it’s a different animal now.”
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No there is no 'taking over from WR' because the governing body of say the Top 14 doesn't have any interest in the game beyond its own horizon - so you need a body that pulls all the threads together above that.
But you have to respect the fact that in most cases, the clubs are primary employers of the players, not the Unions. That loyalty has to be factored in.
The single biggest solution is agreement over a global seasons with more sensible blocks of club/international footy.
Go to commentsI don’t think it’s a question of arrogance. Quite the contrary… it shows that there was a lot of emotion in the way they handled that game. Almost as if they were releasing a lot of built up pressure. Relief almost. They’re not used to being challenged by teams like Ireland, in the past they got used to showing up and getting the result… now, they feel like they’re exposed, they don’t feel like the result is a foregone conclusion …
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