‘Can beat anyone’: Ireland ‘dominated’ France but fall short of SVNS final

Ireland sent shockwaves throughout the SVNS Series on Saturday evening with a stunning upset win over Argentina in the quarter-finals, but their quest for SVNS Series glory would go no further in Los Angeles.

The Irish have scored some headline-grabbing wins this season over more fancied opposition, including famous wins over South Africa and New Zealand in Cape Town, but have failed to take that next step to the big dance on the SVNS Series.

Antoine Dupont’s France stood in the way of their place in the big dance, and while Les Bleus certainly came to play, Ireland were well in truly in the fight right until the end.

Dupont beat a few Irish defenders to score the opener and France went on to lead 12-7 at the break. But a Terry Kennedy double and a late try to Zac Ward had fans on the edge of their seats.

The scoreboard read 26-24 in favour of the French. But Ireland had a chance to send the match to extra time with a tough conversion out wide on the right – but it missed. Ireland were out.

“I mean it’s a tough one to take,” Ireland’s Terry Kennedy told RugbyPass.

"I don’t think the conversion was what it came down to. There were a couple of moments when we let them in for easy tries.

“I think we probably dominated most of that match and to let them get a couple of breakaways, which really cost us in the end, it’s pretty, pretty disappointing.”

Ireland have been one of the form teams of the SVNS Series so far. Without making a Cup final, the men in green travelled to LA as the second-placed side on the overall standings.

Fiji and France have beaten the Irish in one quarter-final each, while familiar foe Argentina bested them in consecutive semi-finals in Cape Town and Perth.

But their dream, which numerous players have talked about, of winning an event on the SVNS Series has continued to evade them.

“We’re building. We’ve built a really strong squad. I think that shows with the consistency of our performances this year,” Kennedy said.

“But, ultimately we want to get that gold. It doesn’t come now, it doesn’t come this weekend, but we still have a few other shots and then obviously the big one in Paris this summer is really what we’re targeting.

“We know that when we play our best we can beat anyone as we showed last night, we beat Argentina and they haven’t lost in however many games,” he continued.

“It’s disappointing that we were nearly on it there, just a couple of big errors that we let them go the lengthy a couple of times really cost us.

“But we’re so close and we’ll get there.”