The first day of the
Six Nations
Rugby Tournament this Friday delivered a comprehensive victory for
Ireland
over France, which ended with 14 players after the expulsion of second row
Paul Willemse
in the 32nd minute of the initial stage.
The Clover
won with great authority in Marseille by 38 to 17.
Despite not having their historic flyhalf
Jonathan Sexton,
Ireland showed themselves to be a strong team and dealt another blow to the France team that ended up eliminated in the quarterfinals of the 2023 World Cup of which they hosted.
In Marseille - the Stade de France is not available because it is affected by the Olympic Games - France presented a very weak defense and worsened its chances when it lost
Willemse
.
Ireland began dominating with 10 points, the product of a successful penalty by Jack Crowley and a try by Jamison Gibson-Park that Crowley himself converted.
Thomas Ramos closed the gap for the Gallo XV with a penalty, but instantly the second Irish try came, supported by Tadhg Beirne and again sent between the sticks by Crowley.
The match was attractive, despite the fact that France lost a player in the first half.
Photo: AFP
Andy Farrell's team imposed its greatest aggression against a French defense that was leaking.
Nine minutes after the French second line Willemse saw the red card for repeated irregular tackles, Damian Penaud managed to support and Ramos converted to make the set 10-17.
Five minutes before the restart, Ireland scored their third try of the night - this time it was Calvin Nash - and Crowley's conversion began to stretch the lead.
Despite being one less, the French team did not stop fighting and got closer again thanks to a hard-fought try by Paul Gabrillagues (Ramos again relentless in the kick) that made things 17-24.
There was more than half an hour left and it seemed that France was not giving up.
That's when Ireland went one step further in their game to take advantage of their superiority.
Dan Sheehan scored his try which Crowley completed to make it 17-31.
It was Ronan Kelleher, with another try and Crowley's conversion, who sealed the victory.
In this way, Ireland began the defense of the title it won last year in the best way, when it also beat France in Dublin by 32-19, a decisive result for the final resolution of the title with the Grand Slam included.
In the last two editions of the tournament a peculiarity occurred, and that is that the winner of the corresponding duel between these two teams ended up becoming champion.
The opening day is completed on Saturday with Italy-England, in Rome, and Wales-Scotland, in Cardiff.
Source: agencies