Ireland coach Andy Farrell on Friday said that his team’s 38-17 thrashing of France gave them invaluable momentum in their bid to defend their Six Nations title.
Ireland outscored France — reduced to 14 men after Paul Willemse was red-carded in the 32nd minute — five tries to two in Marseille to consign the home side to their heaviest defeat since Fabien Galthie took over as head coach in 2019.
“We’d take any type of win on a Friday night in Marseille to kick off the Six Nations,” said Farrell, praising his team’s composure. “The more the game went on, the more you saw the performance building. It wasn’t all singing, all dancing, but we were pretty ruthless when we needed to be.”
Photo: AFP
“It’s a good start,” he said. “We have Italy next and getting off to a good start was always going to be a tough ask here. We’ve done that now so we need to grow off the back of it.”
Ireland outplayed France for large amounts of the game at the Stade Velodrome and Farrell highlighted what he called the “world-class” line-out performance.
“It wasn’t just the attacking line-out, it was the defensive line-out. If you have a platform like that, you can be excited about your attack off the back of it,” he said.
Lock Tadhg Beirne was outstanding, as was his rookie partner Joe McCarthy, named man of the match.
“Our set piece went well and we won our line-out ball. We were in sync as a team and everyone played their part. It was fantastic,” McCarthy said. “It’s never easy to win away in France. We didn’t probably expect to get such a high score, but we’re really happy. The atmosphere was absolutely mental, so everyone dug in and it was a fantastic team performance.”
Ireland skipper Peter O’Mahony hailed the win, saying: “I don’t think it gets any better.”
“It was a serious Test match. I’m very proud of the lads with our control of the game,” said O’Mahony, who was made captain after the retirement of Johnny Sexton. “It was a good start and a good performance.”
Galthie said that thoughts would immediately turn to their trip to Scotland next weekend.
“We were on the backfoot very early, down to 14,” he said. “The Irish played the match, we played at 14. It’s a defeat in the opening Six Nations game. We conceded five tries, it’s something we’ll have to deal with, it’s tough, but the tournament carries on and there are four games to play. We’re away to Scotland next so we’ll prepare for that.”
“We keep our heads up and accept this defeat,” he added.
France skipper Gregory Alldritt, deputizing for Antoine Dupont who has opted to concentrate on rugby sevens ahead of this summer’s Paris Olympics, said that his team had “wanted to show another face.”
“It’s not the image of the French team we wanted to show,” he said. “Now we’re going to own it, keep our heads up and change it for next week.”
Taiwan kept its hopes of advancing to the 2026 World Baseball Classic (WBC) alive with a 9-1 victory over South Africa in a qualifier at the Taipei Dome last night, backed by solid pitching. Bouncing back from Friday’s struggles on the mound, when Taiwanese pitchers surrendered 15 runs to Spain, Team Taiwan kept the visiting team in check, allowing just one run in the bottom of the fourth inning. The win was crucial for Taiwan, as a loss would have eliminated the team from contention for the next WBC. Starting pitcher Sha Tzu-chen (沙子宸) struck out one and allowed no hits, except for
The Chinese Professional Baseball League (CPBL) is considering reducing its pitch clock by two seconds to help players better adjust to the rules applied at the World Baseball Classic (WBC). The proposal aims to shorten the pitch timer from 25 seconds to 23 seconds with the bases empty, and from 20 seconds to 18 seconds with runners on base. Currently, the WBC mandates that pitchers deliver a pitch every 18 seconds with the bases empty and 15 seconds with runners on base. The issue was raised during a pre-season CPBL managers’ meeting on Tuesday by Rakuten Monkeys bench and batting
‘SETTING THE TONE’: Donovan Mitchell said that their determination to dominate had nothing to do with past results, but was about a potential post-season clash The Cleveland Cavaliers on Friday boosted their NBA-best record with a 142-105 romp past the New York Knicks, tightening their grip on the Eastern Conference lead with an all-around dominant display. Donovan Mitchell scored 27 points to lead six Cavs players to score in double figures, connecting on five of seven three-pointers as Cleveland drilled 19 from beyond the arc. “I think the biggest thing was just try to set the tone early,” Mitchell said, adding that the determination to dominate had nothing to do with the Knicks’ first-round playoff win over the Cavs two seasons ago and everything to do with
BELGIANS ADVANCE: Club Brugge gave Atalanta a lesson in efficiency, as Gian Piero Gasperini’s team had 29 efforts at goal, compared with seven from the visitors Seldom has a player’s sending off had such an influence on a game. AC Milan was to left rue Theo Hernandez’s second yellow card — for diving — as Feyenoord advanced to the UEFA Champions League last 16 at the former European champion’s expense with a 1-1 draw in the second leg of their playoff on Tuesday, giving the Dutch team a 2-1 win on aggregate. Bayern Munich, Club Brugge and Benfica also won their playoffs, eliminating Celtic, UEFA Europa League winner Atalanta BC and French team AS Monaco respectively. “In soccer everything changes in a second,” said Milan forward
RSS