Ireland 27-42 France: ‘Free-scoring Bleus leave Irish history tilt in tatters’

Although Ireland only gave away six penalties, there were plenty more occasions when France were able to play with greater freedom thanks to a penalty advantage.

If that was one way in which the visitors were able to get on such a roll, Ireland’s interim head coach Simon Easterby felt their dominance in the collisions was another.

“They’re as good as anyone when they get behind you and they get on the front foot,” he said after his first defeat filling in for Andy Farrell.

“It’s probably down a large part to the collisions that we weren’t able to put in place ourselves, but also credit to the way that they play the game as well.”

Across the past four seasons, these sides have now won two head to heads each, both having done so once away from home.

Barring a French stumble next weekend, it will likely be a pair of titles apiece too.

Yet, rarely, across the period has one team felt so superior to the other, even for only half an hour.

Ireland will surely point to areas where they could be and normally are better.

For the second game in succession they played 20 minutes a man down with Joe McCarthy’s first-half yellow card feeling particularly avoidable.

They lacked any clinical edge during their own period of ascendancy too.

Given France’s final try came off a Damian Penaud intercept from within the shadow of his own posts, it is fair to say that France scored the same seven points as Ireland did from the latter’s visits to the opposition 22 across the first 75 minutes of the game.