France shattered Ireland’s dreams of a repeat of their Six Nations Grand Slam here yesterday beating them 33-10 with scrum-half Morgan Parra who had accused the Irish of being cheats earlier in the week masterminding the defeat.
First-half tries by William Servat – his second for his country – and Yannick Jauzion – his 19th in his 65th test – and a second-half one from Clement Poitrenaud – his sixth – with Parra chipping in with 15 points saw France easily see off a rather flat Irish team.
Ireland – winless here since 2000 – managed one try through David Wallace while Ronan O’Gara kicked the rest of their points.
The Irish camped themselves in the French half for the first 10 minutes but some sterling defence by France kept them at bay.
The French were not faring very well in the lineouts as they lost three in a row on their throw and it was from the third one the Irish came desperately close to scoring the opening try as Brian O’Driscoll broke through, chipped over Poitrenaud and raced for the line.
However, 31-year-old O’Driscoll having outpaced Poitrenaud didn’t get the bounce of the ball and it was ruled a dead ball when it hit the post.
That led to two disastrous minutes for the Irish as Imanol Harinordoquy set up a great move that culminated in Cian Healy tackling Parra who didn’t have the ball and referee Wayne Barnes flourished the yellow card without hesitation – Parra slotted over the penalty to give the hosts a barely-deserved lead.
Ireland hooker Jerry Flannery was fortunate not to join Healy on the sidelines as his leg connected with Six Nations debutant Alexis Palisson laying him out – Barnes opted to give him the benefit of the doubt and just awarded a penalty to France.
Palisson, though, had played to limp off clutching his right thigh to be replaced by Julien Malzieu
