Ireland 27-42 France: Simon Easterby questions second French try in Six Nations loss

With a mix of power and counter-attacking speed, France blew Ireland away in the second half, scoring 34 unanswered points to avenge last year’s 38-17 loss in Marseille.

And while Easterby conceded the French are a “hard team to stop when they have momentum”, he bemoaned Ireland’s inability to turn pressure into points when they had possession inside France’s 22.

“We certainly felt we didn’t take our opportunities or put them under enough pressure,” said Easterby.

“When we did it wasn’t until the last 10 minutes of the game when we could score a decent number of points. But the game was gone.”

Easterby, who suffered the first defeat of his interim spell, added: “We felt that going in at 8-6 down at half-time we were still well in the game.

“We were confident if we started well, which we did, that we could kick on and make them pay in terms of our fitness and our ability to go well in second halves, which we have done in previous games in the tournament.

“Unfortunately, we didn’t take enough of opportunities in the game in their 22 and we also conceded too easily.”