IRELAND SAY JOE McCarthy put his hand up and accepted that his first-half yellow card against France was a needless infringement that cost his side.

23-year-old McCarthy was sin binned for pulling France fullback Thomas Ramos back after he passed the ball during a counter-attack.

It was an obvious offence and an easy yellow-card decision for referee Angus Gardner.

France kicked the penalty into the left corner and immediately scored as their maul did damage against the seven-man Irish pack before Louis Bielle-Biarrey finished from Antoine Dupont’s pass.

That score gave France the lead after extensive Irish pressure in the French 22 had yielded nothing in the opening 15 minutes of the game.

McCarthy returned from the sin bin to make some positive contributions for Ireland but assistant coach Andrew Goodman said the young second row knows his yellow-card error wasn’t of the standard they set for themselves.

“It was a stupid penalty,” said Goodman. “We can’t be having that. He knows he let down the team there. He was the first to put his hand up.

“Those kind of errors in a game can prove costly, which it did in terms of the little bit of momentum they got after us being on attack for a long period of time.”

Overall, Goodman said Ireland gave a “performance we weren’t proud of” against the French.

That opening quarter was particularly frustrating for attack coach Goodman given that Ireland dominated possession and territory but couldn’t came away with a score.

Number eight Caelan Doris was held up on one occasion, with France’s defence outstanding, but Goodman saw lots of room for improvement.

“There were lots of other little bits as well in terms of our flow inside the 22 and option-taking, little bits of attack we talked about as a backline that we could have been better for our forwards in that area – Some of the edges and short sides we could have taken.

“There was Dan Sheehan’s try off the maul down the short side where you could argue that’s a yellow card where Dupont is defending there and stopping him making a pass to score a try. There were a number of different factors there.”

The disappointment meant Ireland had a few “restless” nights after the game but Goodman says their energy has now been restored.

He and the other coaches discussed how they could have better prepared the players, while the team review of the French game has also been done. 

Now it’s on to focusing on their clash with Italy on Super Saturday.

“We need to go out there and put out our best performance and for our fans, we want to give them something good to watch,” said Goodman.

Ireland must beat Italy with a bonus point on a big margin, then hope that Wales beat England in Cardiff and Scotland win against France in Paris in the subsequent games on Super Saturday.

As unlikely as it seems, that would mean Ireland winning the Six Nations.

“Exactly. Go Wales. Go Scotland,” said Goodman.

“Anything’s possible so we’ve got to focus on our performance. We want a performance that we’re proud of but also that our fans are proud of.

“Off the back of that, we’ll be hoping Finn Russell can weave some magic in France and we know how tough Wales are at home and they finished well on the weekend and hopefully take some good confidence from that game.”