{"id":284065,"date":"2026-02-06T15:20:10","date_gmt":"2026-02-06T15:20:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/284065\/"},"modified":"2026-02-06T15:20:10","modified_gmt":"2026-02-06T15:20:10","slug":"ireland-were-non-existent-for-20-minutes-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/284065\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Ireland were non-existent for 20 minutes\u2019 \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

Unsurprisingly, the French<\/a> press were generous with their praise of Fabien Galthi\u00e9\u2019s men after a comprehensive 36-14 victory over Ireland<\/a>. Dreams of a Grand Slam are alive and well amongst the scribes of Paris. <\/p>\n

L\u2019\u00c9quipe labelled it the perfect start to the French<\/a> Six Nations<\/a> campaign, perhaps somewhat generously noting Ireland\u2019s ability to keep France away from the try line in the opening minutes. \u201cAfter having retreated for a short period, put under pressure by the Irish kicking game, the French thereafter only advanced,\u201d wrote L\u00e9a Leostic. \u201cThe French continued their rhythm in the second half, where Ireland were non-existent for 20 minutes.\u201d<\/p>\n

Writing in Midi Olympique, the French performance left Nicolas Augot salivating already at the prospect of a title decider with England come the tournament\u2019s final round. \u201cThe French team can legitimately think of the final victory and the grand slam,\u201d he said. \u201cBut les Bleus have to be patient until March 14th and the meeting with England.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis was a much anticipated first challenge. Les Bleus had to live up to their status as defending champions and position themselves as legitimate candidates to go back-to-back, by nourishing the hope of winning another grand slam having done so in 2022.\u201d<\/p>\n

Perhaps pointing to a more accurate representation of how Ireland\u2019s kicking impacted France, Augot continued: \u201cMaintaining their level of performance despite the replacements in the second half will be one of the keys to France\u2019s progression, while the discipline issues and problems under the high ball which they showed in recent months posed no problem [On Thursday].\u201d<\/p>\n

In terms of individual displays, there was plenty of love to go around France\u2019s big names. Matthieu Jalibert, Mikael Guillard, Thomas Ramos and Louis-Bielle Biarrey all came in for praise. <\/p>\n

In Midi Olympique\u2019s player ratings, Augot was purring at Ramos\u2019 first-time chip which led to Bielle-Biarrey\u2019s second score, the word \u201cincroyable\u201d justifiably used. L\u2019\u00c9quipe were keen to highlight Jalibert on the occasion of his return to the starting 10 shirt, a heavily anticipated occasion given Romain Ntamack\u2019s injury and Jalibert\u2019s form for Bordeaux. <\/p>\n

\"France'sFrance’s wing Th\u00e9o Attissogbe dives across the line to score a try during the Six Nations against Ireland yesterday. Photograph: Alain Jocard\/AFP via Getty Images <\/p>\n

\u201cThe outhalf was under pressure,\u201d wrote L\u00e9a Leostic. \u201cHe wasn\u2019t perfect, but he succeeded in finding his place alongside Antoine Dupont and worked plenty of touches on the ball. <\/p>\n

\u201cHis attempt at a 50:22, saved by Sam Prendergast, brought about Louis Bielle-Biarrey\u2019s try. He also scored a try a few minutes later and even brought out his speciality, a little chip for himself. The ball was finally recovered by Fran\u00e7ois Cros and finished off by a slide from Charles Ollivon into the Irish in-goal area.\u201d<\/p>\n

[\u00a0Ireland go back to the bad old days after night to forget in ParisOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

Le Monde found the efforts of Bielle-Biarrey, scorer of a double, worthy of mention. \u201cWhile second row Micka\u00ebl Guillard saw his work rate at the breakdown rewarded with the man of the match award, it\u2019s impossible not to highlight Louis Bielle-Biarrey. <\/p>\n

\u201cUnstoppable as always when he pulls on the jersey, the Bordeaux man got les Bleus off to the perfect start on Thursday, scoring the first try with a brilliant individual effort. A second followed later in the match – his 22nd in 23 caps – amidst a flurry of attacks which had the Stade de France roaring.\u201d <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Unsurprisingly, the French press were generous with their praise of Fabien Galthi\u00e9\u2019s men after a comprehensive 36-14 victory…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":284066,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[1814,1452,61,60,1449,1838,15551,112],"class_list":{"0":"post-284065","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-sports","8":"tag-france","9":"tag-france-rugby","10":"tag-ie","11":"tag-ireland","12":"tag-ireland-rugby","13":"tag-paris","14":"tag-six-nations","15":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/284065","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=284065"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/284065\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/284066"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=284065"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=284065"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=284065"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}