French ruggers pummel Irish

France 44

Ireland 5

By Mark Jones

DUBLIN — For France, it was a Six Nations grand slam; for Ireland, a brutal dose or reality. Last Saturday’s mauling in Paris was all too reminiscent of the bad old days when Irish sides wilted in the face of the home cocktail of pace and power. In the professional era, this sort of demolition was not supposed to happen, but happen it did, so let the inquisition begin.

There was talk of the fatigue factor, of too many games, of players pushed to the pin of their collars. The excuses sounded lame. They failed to cover the holes in Ireland’s feeble performance. No international side can go into a game now with a faulty lineout, a backpedaling scrum, and a policy of non-tackling and hope to succeed.

Yet that’s what Ireland attempted — at the Stade de France, of all places, against the best team in Europe.

This painful lesson was only 2 minutes old when the French scored the first of their five tries. In fact, if the winners had themselves performed with more accuracy, and if they had decided not to make so many substitutions in the final quarter, the mauling would surely have become a massacre.

With ineffective individual contributions from key players such as Keith Wood, Brian O’Driscoll, David Humphreys, Denis Hickie and David Wallace, there was little hope of papering over the collective cracks. For coach Eddie O’Sullivan, who kicked off his reign with a devastating 54-10 success against Wales, the suspicion is that he has been whipping the cream without bothering to bake the cake.

Even in these days of systems and phases, there is simply no escape from the basics of lineout, scrum and tackle. Ireland appeared to have ignored the tenets on which rugby is founded. And without quality possession, they were waiting to be picked off. The lineout was a shambles with Wood erring on several throws, while the scrum retreated alarmingly. The ramifications were disastrous, as the visitors were lucky to be only 28-5 down at halftime. Wood’s barnstorming try gave some respite, but it proved to be a false dawn.

“I’m realistic enough to know that when we’re competing with the top teams, Irish rugby has to get everything right to compete,” O’Sullivan said. “When we have days like this one, where things go wrong for us, we’re really struggling.”

And struggle on Ireland did. Peter Clohessy, in his last international match, looked off the pace. When Ronan O’Gara and Paul Wallace came on as substitutes, there was a minor improvement. However, it was as if the French were toying with their opponents. More tackles were missed, more lineouts botched and now O’Sullivan will have to contemplate changes in personnel.

With Clohessy and Mick Galwey retired, Paul O’Connell should become a fixture in the second row, but the front row is more problematic. Equally, the back row isn’t functioning with Wallace and Anthony Foley seriously off form. Then there’s the question of whether Humphreys or O’Gara plays in the pivotal position of outhalf.

The Irish have finished third in the championship, winning all three home games — against Wales, Scotland and Italy. The away performances, in London and Paris, have been catastrophic.

With two highly demanding test matches scheduled against New Zealand in June, O’Sullivan has no comfort zone between now and the start of the next championship season.

Ireland: G. Dempsey; S. Horgan, B. O’Driscoll, R. Henderson, D. Hickie; D. Humphreys, P. Stringer; P. Clohessy, K. Wood (capt.), J. Hayes, M. O’Kelly, G. Longwell, S. Easterby, D. Wallace, A. Foley. Subs: K. Gleeson for Wallace, R. O’Gara for Humphreys, both 49 mins.; P. Wallace for Clohessy, 63 mins.; P. O’Connell for Longwell, 65 mins.