Ireland will be in Paris tomorrow to play France in the first-ever Thursday night fixture in Six Nations history.
Ireland historically have a poor away record against France. Tomorrow’s will be the 105th test overall between the sides, with the French having 60 wins to the Irish 37, and seven draws. That differential is mostly in France, who’ve won the fixture 35 times on home soil, lost 13 and drawn 2. In Ireland it’s even, 23/23/5, and in neutral venues, the French edge it, 2/1/0.
Caelan Doris chats with Finlay Bealham during Ireland Rugby Squad Training this week at the Campus, Quinta do Lago, Portugal. [Inpho/Ben Brady]
Ireland won the first post-war game in 1948 and got another Paris win in 1952, before a third followed in 1972. When in 2000, Brian O’Driscoll scored three tries in a 27-25 victory, he ended a 28-year drought in Paris, but also an unbeaten French run going back to 1983. After that, France won nine of the first 12 meetings in the new millennium, the last of them a World Cup game in Bordeaux.
However, the Irish stats have been much brighter since: following Six Nations draws in ’12 and ’13, Ireland have won eight (including a World Cup game in Cardiff) and France five. That said, the home side are hot favorites to make it 61 victories to 37 in the first game of this year’s Six Nations.
LEINSTER
SUPREMACY
Brian O’Driscoll was, of course, a star with Leinster, and in recent games Irish coach Andy Farrell and his assistant Simon Easterby, who was in charge while Farrell was away with British and Irish Lions, have leaned heavily on Leinster players when selecting their Irish starting XV. Irish Times rugby correspondent Gerry Thornley said recently that the gap between Leinster and the other three provinces has never been so vast. That’s not good for domestic rugby. Munster has failed to get to the knock-out stages of this season’s Champions Cup and like Connacht and Ulster they will now finish out the season in the second tier Challenge Cup competition.
We always seem to do well in the November internationals, but they are really no barometer for the Six Nations. After losing to the All Blacks in Soldier Field, Chicago, Ireland then had wins over Japan and Australia in Dublin, but World Champions South Africa once again proved to be too strong for us in a Test game in a 24-13 win at the Aviva. It was said that the referee, who brandished seven yellow and one red cars, spoiled the game but he was just going by the rules. Correction there are no rules in Rugby Union, only Laws. France are probably not as tough as South Africa, but they love to ‘‘throw the ball around’’ when playing in Paris.
Maybe there is another Irish player in the Brian O’Driscoll mold who will run at the French tomorrow night. Meanwhile French star Antoine Dupon says there will be no bad blood towards Ireland players Tadhg Beirne and Andrew Porter when the fit-again scrum-half returns after a year away from international rugby. The former world player of the year ruptured cruciate ligaments after being cleaned out of a ruck by the Irish forward duo in last season’s Six Nations game in Dublin.
AKI OUT
Bundee Aki will miss Ireland's first three Six Nations games after being handed a four game ban for verbal abuse and disrespect towards the match officials after Connacht's URC defeat to Leinster last Saturday. The 35-year-old New Zealand-born centre, who has won 68 Irish caps, faced an independent disciplinary committee last week, who found that Aki had engaged with the match official team after the game on several occasions. Aki was handed a six-game ban, however two of those games were suspended, meaning he will miss one game for Connacht, followed by Ireland’s opening three Six Nations games against France, Italy and England. The centre will be available for the final two games of the campaign at home to Wales and Scotland.
Aki had earlier been dropped from the Ireland panel and did not travel with the rest of the squad on their training camp to Portugal. The misconduct charges arose from the Round 10 BKT United Rugby Championship game between Connacht and Leinster in Galway on Jan. 24. For a while last week it looked like this could the end of Bundee’s international career, but Ireland assistant Ireland assistant coach Andrew Goodman says that he could still have a role to play in this year’s Six Nations. Also missing from tomorrow’s squad will be full back Hugo Keenan and prop forwards Andrew Porter, Paddy McCarthy and Jack Boyle, who are all injured.
P.J. Cunningham reports on the provinces' involvement in the URC at the weekend.
Leinster 28 Edinburgh 20
Leinster recovered from a half-time deficit to secure a bonus-point United Rugby Championship victory over Edinburgh, with Scott Penny’s second-half hat-trick proving decisive at the Aviva Stadium.
Edinburgh, boosted by the release of Duhan van der Merwe, made a strong start and led at the interval thanks to tries from the Scotland winger and Malelili Satala, despite Max Deegan crossing for Leinster.
Ross Thompson missed an early penalty for the visitors, but Edinburgh regrouped well and took advantage of a yellow card for Callum Hunter-Hill before Van der Merwe finished clinically down the left. Thompson added a penalty before Satala dotted down in the corner to give the Scots an eight-point cushion at the break.
The contest shifted decisively after the restart. Penny pounced on a charged-down box kick to bring Leinster back into contention and the flanker went on to score twice more as wave after wave of home pressure told.
Charlie Shiel’s late try briefly raised hopes of a losing bonus point for Edinburgh, but Cammy Scott scuffed the conversion and Leinster closed out a comfortable win.
Leinster: A Osborne; J Kenny, R Ioane, C Mangan, R Moloney; C Tector, L McGrath; J Cahir, J McKee, A Sparrow; RG Snyman, B Deeney; M Deegan, S Penny, D Mangan Replacements: G McCarthy, A Usanov, N Smyth, C O'Tighearnaigh, J Eriscon, W Connors, F Gunne, H McLaughlin.
Hard-earned win
Ulster claimed a hard-earned 21-14 URC victory over Cardiff at a freezing Affidea Stadium, with Angus Bell producing a moment of magic to swing the contest.
Scott Wilson opened the scoring beneath the posts before Bell shrugged off two challenges and showed impressive footwork to ghost past Cam Winnett for a superb solo try. Jack Murphy converted both scores to send Ulster into a 14-0 half-time lead.
Cardiff responded early in the second half when Yohan Mulder crossed, but Ulster quickly restored control as Charlie Irvine scampered over, with Murphy again accurate from the tee.
Steffan Emanuel’s late try brought Cardiff back within seven points, but Ulster held firm under late pressure to leapfrog their hosts in the URC standings.
Connacht come out on top
Connacht left it late but secured a bonus-point 31-15 United Rugby Championship victory over Zebre in Parma, sealing the result deep into stoppage time.
Zebre led 3-0 at the break in an open first half that saw the hosts attack from deep, while Connacht were guilty of overplaying at times.
The visitors struck within seconds of the restart when Joe Joyce pounced after a clearance was charged down. Sean Jansen crossed twice, though Zebre stayed in touch and hit back through Gonzalo Garcia.
With the hosts reduced to 14 men following Marco Zanon’s sin-binning, Connacht finally secured the bonus point when replacement Oisín McCormack finished from a driving maul, with Sam Gilbert adding the conversion.
Connacht: S Gilbert; S Jennings; H West, C Forde; C Mullins; J Ioane, C Blade; J Duggan, D Tierney-Martin, J Aungier; J Murphy, J Joyce, P Boyle (capt), S O'Brien, S Jansen
Replacements: M Victory, P Dooley, F Barrett, D O'Connor, N Murray, B Murphy, S Naughton, O McCormack.
Munster come up short again
Munster’s late surge was not enough as Glasgow Warriors held firm to secure a 31-22 United Rugby Championship victory at Scotstoun.
Glasgow appeared out of sight by the interval after racing into a 28-5 lead through tries from Ollie Smith, Dan Lancaster, Olujare Oguntibeju and Josh McKay, all converted by Lancaster.
Munster responded strongly after the break, crossing through Dan Kelly, Brian Gleeson and Diarmuid Kilgallen to cut the deficit to six points and threaten a remarkable comeback.
However, Lancaster eased the pressure with a late penalty to seal the win for the league leaders, with Munster denied a losing bonus point despite scoring four tries.
