Ireland made it two wins from two in the 2015 Six Nations with a seven point victory over France. This was a monstrously physical game from start to finish and thanks to their accurate goal kicking, Ireland go into their next game with England with a 100% record.
Ireland Continue Six Nations Sweep
Jonny Sexton returned from a 12 week injury absence to put in a man of the match performance which included five successful penalties but Ireland, for the second week running struggled in attack and butchered several try scoring opportunities.
Sexton was chiefly responsible for the biggest mishap in attack for Ireland when he chose to pass to Jared Payne who knocked on inside France’s 22 with Rob Kearney and Simon Zebo outside waiting to cross for an easy try. A score at this stage would have put Ireland 17 points up and the game would have been effectively over with 20 minutes to play,
On the back of this missed opportunity, Ireland started making some extremely uncharacteristic mistakes in defence which culminated in Rory Best’s daft decision to trip a French player while at the bottom of a ruck. France sub Romain Taofifenua scored the games’ only try while Best was in the sin bin.
Ireland’s lack of attacking flair is extremely frustrating to watch so far in the Six Nations. Mistakes were to the fore against France just like they were against Italy the week before. Sexton’s return led to more opportunities being created but an inability to finish is a worry.
The back three of Tommy Bowe, Rob Kearney and Simon Zebo are not being utilised enough as attacking threats and Jared Payne is struggling at outside centre and the option of switching Robbie Henshaw into the outside channel should be explored going into the next game against England. Ian Madigan would be the obvious choice to come in at inside centre.
Conor Murray is also not at his best from an attacking point of view. He is a rock defensively but just like the Italian game he is not sniping from the base of the rucks enough. This allows the opposition defence to spread out and easily defend the next attack. Murray is a sensational player but needs to be change from his current predictable play.
Elsewhere for Ireland it was encouraging to see Sean O’Brien get through the full 80 minutes. Along with Peter O’Mahony he was immense in defence. O’Brien was not at his rampaging best with ball in hand but that will come with more game time.
Ireland coped in the scrum but will have to keep improving as the games go on. Jack McGrath is struggling and the return of Cian Healy is very timely. McGrath also gave away some soft penalties and Ireland could be better off bringing the now fit Dave Kilcoyne or James Cronin into the squad for the England game ahead of McGrath.
Another area the Irish coaching staff may decide to shake up is at second row. Iain Henderson is chomping at the bit to get into the starting 15 and while Devin Toner goes about his work diligently the big Ulster lock deserves his chance. Henderson is no longer a player for the future, he is a player for the now and should start against England.
One injury worry already ahead of the England game is Jamie Heaslip. He was hit with a disgraceful cheap shot knee from Pascal Pape and is rumoured to have a fractured vertebrae in his lower back. How Wayne Barnes did not produce the red card for Pape after this act of thuggery is mystifying.
Ireland will once again have to improve ahead of the “old enemy” coming to town but they do have the scope to do this. Certainly from an attacking standpoint they need to be more cohesive and if they can create more try scoring opportunities they have every chance of keeping their 100% record going into the final two games.
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