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Hart was the man of the match as Grenoble beat Racing Metro.
Exiles

Round-up: Irish players in France

There was one stand out player among the four Irishmen who took part in the Top 14 over the weekend.

THERE WAS A landmark performance for one exciting young Irish player, while several more experienced heads also featured in the Top 14 over the weekend. Here’s a full round-up of how the Irish fared in French rugby over the past few days.

Top 14

This weekend’s top-tier action in France was all about one young Irishman who launched himself into the public consciousness with a superb performance. Scrum-half James Hart scored 16 points as he led Grenoble to a shock 22-20 victory over Racing Metro in Paris on Saturday evening. The 22-year-old benefited from a Racing knock-on to race away for an opportunistic try, and he kicked three penalties and one conversion for an accuracy rate of 80%.

Hart, whose mother hails from Toulouse, has been named in L’Équipe‘s team of the week and Midi Olympique have awarded the former Leinster U20 halfback their player of the week award. In what was only his fifth Top 14 start, Hart has ensured he will push Grenoble’s regular scrum-half Valentin Courrent for his place in the starting XV over the coming weeks.

YouTube credit: Ballboll81

Former Connacht and Ireland ‘A’ lock Andrew Farley played the final ten minutes of the game off the bench, and did well as the Isère-based club finished strongly and earned two penalties which Courrent slotted, having replaced Hart in the 71st minute. Credit must go to defence coach Bernard Jackman for the excellent strength shown by his men when they didn’t have the ball, with Racing creating just two line breaks over the 80 minutes.

On the losing side was Ireland out-half Jonny Sexton, who kicked five penalties out of six and missed his one conversion. The 28-year-old came under some post-match criticism for not playing the game in the right areas of the field, in particular for attempting to run the ball in the build-up to Hart’s try. Sexton did manage to create a try for Marc Andreu with an intelligent chip, but overall won’t be happy with his game management.

Grenoble are up to seventh in the table after this magnificent away win, while Racing drop to eighth.

Oyonnax came away from Montpellier with nothing after a 45-20 loss to Fabien Galthié’s side. Ex-Leinster second row Damian Browne played 58 minutes before being subbed off in the second half, but he appears to be growing in confidence and fitness with each passing week. The 33-year-old was making his third Top 14 start of the season as Oyonnax dropped to 12th in the league.

Pro D2

France’s second tier took a break this weekend, but the action resumes on Saturday, with the likes of Denis Fogarty, Brian Hayes, Conor Gaston, Mark Flanagan and Nigel Brady all hoping to feature.

‘Happy enough’: Understated Keatley proving he can be Munster’s key man

This is the 22-year-old Irish scrumhalf that upstaged Racing Métro’s Jonny Sexton