France 18; Ireland 13
It was a case of Allez France but truthfully Ireland did everything but win this game at Sandy Park in Exeter on Sunday.
And so like their male counterparts, it was a case of the World Cup quarter-finals and no further for Scott Bemand’s game bunch who had France on the ropes right up to the sound of the final whistle as they went in search of a converted try which would have given them a dramatic victory.
They entered this encounter as massive underdogs on Six Nations form but they threw that book out the window as led by returning talisman Aoife Wafer, the girls in green were inspired in the way they went about their task - often unrewarded as a stubborn French resistance managed only just to hold them out.
With the elements in our back - and there was wind and rain aplenty, we dominated the first half and did all our scoring in that moiety with Linda Djougang and Stacey Flood crossing for tries, with out-half Dannah O'Brien failing to convert either but landing a penalty as a consolation for those misses.
You could tell the measure of pressure France were under by the fact that three of their players were sin-binned but Les Bleus hung in and more than once were favored by Lady Luck in the exchanges.
Thirteen points never looked good enough to get Ireland through and when Joanna Grisez got in for what proved to be the winning try with just a dozen minutes left to play, following similar scores from scored the winning try with just 12 minutes Charlotte Escudero try and a penalty from Morgane Bourgeois, Ireland had no option but to go all out.
Most of the 11,618 crowd in the southern English town were cheering for green and in fairness the team gave it one helluva shift in trying to get over the line to either force extra time with a try or victory with the added conversion.
With Wafer leading by example and virtually always breaking the gainline, Ireland was on the front foot more than could have been anticipated but France showed a commendable spirit to dig in and defend, defend, defend.
Even as they conceded penalties near the end which allowed Ireland into their danger area and when our final lineout throw was flicked from green hands, they got possession and ended our hope of advancement, much to their relief.
Ireland: S Flood; B Parsons, A Dalton, E Higgins, A Costigan; D O’Brien, A Reilly; N O'Dowd, N Jones, L Djougang; R Campbell, S Monaghan (capt); F Tuite, A Wafer, B Hogan Replacements: C Molony-MacDonald (Jones 66), E Perry (O'Dowd 58), S McGrath, E Corri-Fallon (Monaghan 66), G Moore (Hogan 58), E Lane, E Breen, A McGann.
SCORERS
Ireland: Tries - Djougang, Flood Pen: O'Brien
France: Tries - Escudero, Grisez Con: Bourgeois Pen: Bourgeois (2)
