{"id":283800,"date":"2026-02-06T11:13:07","date_gmt":"2026-02-06T11:13:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/283800\/"},"modified":"2026-02-06T11:13:07","modified_gmt":"2026-02-06T11:13:07","slug":"ireland-go-back-to-the-bad-old-days-after-night-to-forget-in-paris-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/283800\/","title":{"rendered":"Ireland go back to the bad old days after night to forget in Paris \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

Oh dear. As Gerry Thornley puts it in his match report, last night\u2019s game in Paris \u201cquickly disintegrated into one of those dog-eared scripts from the bad old days<\/a>\u201d. It was a thoroughly \u201cdisheartening night\u201d, and few seemed more disheartened in its aftermath than Andy Farrell. \u201cSomething that I never thought we\u2019d be saying about this Irish team, we had a bit of a lack of intent in that first-half<\/a> … and if that\u2019s lacking you\u2019re not going to win any international game, never mind one in Paris.\u201d<\/p>\n

Just two of the starting 15 earned more than a five out of 10 mark in Johnny Watterson\u2019s player ratings<\/a>, Ireland\u2019s game plan \u201cshredded almost from the get-go\u201d<\/a>, as John O\u2019Sullivan notes in his \u2018Talking Point\u2019. And in his analysis of the game, Nathan Johns concludes that Ireland were given \u201ca lesson in modern attacking rugby\u201d<\/a>. They gifted \u201cchaos to a French outfit that was already capable of finding it themselves\u201d.<\/p>\n

After that performance, the members of the Ireland XV that take on England A<\/a> in Thomond Park this evening might just feel their chances of promotion to the senior squad have increased. John previews the game.<\/p>\n

And in Gaelic games, Gordon Manning looks forward to the meeting of Cork and Tipperary\u2019s hurlers at P\u00e1irc U\u00ed Chaoimh<\/a> on Saturday night when 25,000 are expected to attend what is a repeat of last year\u2019s league and All-Ireland finals.<\/p>\n

Is 40 the new 30? Johnny Watterson reckons so \u2013 after all, Katie Taylor, who will be 40 in July, is shaping up for another world title fight. Justin Rose is 45 and is still going strong and Cristiano Ronaldo celebrated his 41st birthday on Thursday. \u201cTime used to be the truth teller to elite athletes<\/a>,\u201d says Johnny. \u201cIt is now more fallible than ever.\u201d<\/p>\n

This being the week that the Winter Olympics got under way, Ian O\u2019Riordan catches up with the man who came closest to winning a medal for Ireland in the event \u2013 Lord Clifton Wrottesley, the \u201cIrish Lancelot on ice\u201d<\/a>. Meanwhile, Sean Ingle brings you some rather eye-watering news: some ski jumpers might just be \u201cinjecting their penises with hyaluronic acid<\/a> in order to fly further\u201d. Anything for a marginal gain, eh?<\/p>\n

In soccer, Gavin Cummiskey made his way over to Stoke to meet up with 22-year-old Bosun Lawal<\/a>, the St Kevin\u2019s Boys graduate who is targeting a first senior Irish cap, and he also previews the new League of Ireland season<\/a>, taking you through the runners and riders.<\/p>\n

And in racing, Brian O\u2019Connor has news of jockey Philip Byrnes being cleared of wrongdoing<\/a> over the long-running controversy involving his unseat from Redwood Queen at Wexford last May. And in light of remarks made by David Armstrong, a former British Horseracing Board member, about the threat of jump racing not existing for welfare reasons in 10 years<\/a>, Brian despairs of the sport yet again circling the wagons and hoping that \u201ca difficult subject will simply go away\u201d.<\/p>\n

TV Watch: BBC2 and TNT Sports continue their Winter Olympics coverage through the day and night, with the opening ceremony taking place at 7pm (that will also be shown live by the RT\u00c9 News channel and RT\u00c9 Player). From 2.15pm you can watch the second round at the Phoenix Open (Sky Sports Golf), and at 7.15pm Premier Sports has live coverage of Ireland XV v England A at Thomond Park.<\/p>\n

Come 8pm, Shamrock Rovers open the defence of their league title against Dundalk (Virgin Media Two), subject to a pitch inspection in Tallaght at 11am on Friday morning. If that game is called off they will broadcast the northwest derby between Derry City against Sligo Rovers from the Brandywell as James McClean marks his return to the League of Ireland.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Oh dear. As Gerry Thornley puts it in his match report, last night\u2019s game in Paris \u201cquickly disintegrated…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":283801,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[25747,1452,61,60,1449,43,46616],"class_list":["post-283800","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ireland","tag-andy-farrell","tag-france-rugby","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-ireland-rugby","tag-news","tag-sports-briefing"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/283800","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=283800"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/283800\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/283801"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=283800"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=283800"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=283800"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}