IRELAND SECOND ROW Tadhg Beirne said their first-half performance in Paris last night was “nowhere near where we expect.”
Andy Farrell’s side were 22-0 down by the interval and conceded again after half time to leave themselves facing a mountainous task.
Ireland did grab back two tries of their own, but les Bleus finished strong with their fifth of the night to copper-fasten a resounding 36-14 bonus-point win to open the Six Nations.
“I think that first half performance was nowhere near where we expect and the scoreline on half time was probably deservedly in France’s way with the way we played, unfortunately,” said Beirne to RTÉ Radio afterwards at Stade de France.
“I think physically they probably dominated us, they won the aerial battle and then any bouncing ball, you know how dangerous France are, and we found ourselves underneath our post a couple of times, and we had a bit of a mountain to climb in that second half.
Advertisement
“We gave it a good crack in the second half, but ultimately it was too big of a mountain for us to get back into the game.”
Ireland head coach Andy Farrell was frustrated at his side’s lack of intent in that first half.
Inside centre Stuart McCloskey revealed that the half-time team talk had been stinging.
“I don’t know if a lot of that can be repeated, but just get back to our game,” said McCloskey of Farrell’s message.
“We weren’t playing our game. They were probably battering us physically. We needed to win some collisions and get back in the game that way.”
Ireland must lick their wounds in the coming days and turn their attention towards the visit of Italy to Dublin tomorrow week.
France, meanwhile, roll on in commanding fashion as they look to retain their title and win a Grand Slam.
“It’s in France’s hands now, they’ve got a bonus point win against us,” said Beirne.
“You know, the Championship is in their hands. All we can do now is regroup, dust ourselves off and make sure we’re better next week against Italy and go from there and make sure we don’t have another loss in this tournament.”
Ireland may try to take some positivity from being able to rally in the second half, even if it proved to be scant consolation in the end.
“I thought a couple of guys off the bench played really well,” said McCloskey. “I thought Nick Timoney was incredibly physical.
“But yeah, once we got into some of our game in the second half, once we got a bit of ball, I thought we went pretty well, going forward.
“We could have scored that third try which got disallowed and we kind of would have been back in the game, but we left ourselves too much to do by then.”
To embed this post, copy the code below on your site
Close
32 Comments
This is YOUR comments community. Stay civil, stay constructive, stay on topic.
Please familiarise yourself with our comments policy
here
before taking part.
'Nowhere near where we expect' – Ireland fall well short in Paris
IRELAND SECOND ROW Tadhg Beirne said their first-half performance in Paris last night was “nowhere near where we expect.”
Andy Farrell’s side were 22-0 down by the interval and conceded again after half time to leave themselves facing a mountainous task.
Ireland did grab back two tries of their own, but les Bleus finished strong with their fifth of the night to copper-fasten a resounding 36-14 bonus-point win to open the Six Nations.
“I think that first half performance was nowhere near where we expect and the scoreline on half time was probably deservedly in France’s way with the way we played, unfortunately,” said Beirne to RTÉ Radio afterwards at Stade de France.
“I think physically they probably dominated us, they won the aerial battle and then any bouncing ball, you know how dangerous France are, and we found ourselves underneath our post a couple of times, and we had a bit of a mountain to climb in that second half.
“We gave it a good crack in the second half, but ultimately it was too big of a mountain for us to get back into the game.”
Ireland head coach Andy Farrell was frustrated at his side’s lack of intent in that first half.
Inside centre Stuart McCloskey revealed that the half-time team talk had been stinging.
“I don’t know if a lot of that can be repeated, but just get back to our game,” said McCloskey of Farrell’s message.
“We weren’t playing our game. They were probably battering us physically. We needed to win some collisions and get back in the game that way.”
Ireland must lick their wounds in the coming days and turn their attention towards the visit of Italy to Dublin tomorrow week.
France, meanwhile, roll on in commanding fashion as they look to retain their title and win a Grand Slam.
“It’s in France’s hands now, they’ve got a bonus point win against us,” said Beirne.
“You know, the Championship is in their hands. All we can do now is regroup, dust ourselves off and make sure we’re better next week against Italy and go from there and make sure we don’t have another loss in this tournament.”
Ireland may try to take some positivity from being able to rally in the second half, even if it proved to be scant consolation in the end.
“I thought a couple of guys off the bench played really well,” said McCloskey. “I thought Nick Timoney was incredibly physical.
“But yeah, once we got into some of our game in the second half, once we got a bit of ball, I thought we went pretty well, going forward.
“We could have scored that third try which got disallowed and we kind of would have been back in the game, but we left ourselves too much to do by then.”
To embed this post, copy the code below on your site
Beirne Six Nations France Ireland Regrets