Eddie Jones hailed France\u2019s performance in their Six Nations opener against Ireland but highlighted where they looked ordinary.<\/p>\n
Fabien Galthie\u2019s charges powered to a 36-14 victory at the Stade de France in Paris, running in five tries to Ireland\u2019s<\/a> two with Les Bleus dominating the first half of the encounter.<\/p>\n France\u2019s<\/a> performance was centred around their aerial dominance, set-piece accuracy and ability to dominate the gain-line, allowing for quick attacking ball which Ireland simply couldn\u2019t handle.<\/p>\n While Galthie\u2019s men emphatically dispatched Ireland in their first Six Nations<\/a> Test of the year, Jones believes that they were still rather ordinary at times in the game, particularly with Andy Farrell\u2019s men grabbing two consolation scores in the final quarter.<\/p>\n Where France were ordinary<\/p>\n He said as much when providing his immediate reaction to the clash on the Rugby Unity podcast<\/a>, where he was joined by fellow ex-Wallabies head coach Ewan McKenzie.<\/p>\n \u201cThree things to come out of the game for me,\u201d Jones<\/a> began.<\/p>\n \u201cAgain, the influence of the contestable kicks, it seemed like in the first half, France won all the crumbs from contestable kicks and therefore had the flow of the game and were able to score a considerable number of points.<\/p>\n \u201cSecond thing, up until the last 10 minutes, it was almost a joy to watch with little TMO at the end. We had a little bit more TMO, and I thought the game flowed really well. There was a nice rhythm to the game.<\/p>\n \u201cAnd the third was France, when they\u2019re able to get any sort of momentum, they really played some beautiful rugby with their ability to keep the ball moving, their support lines, their offloading in the tackle, it was really good rugby to watch.\u201d<\/p>\n However, it was when France weren\u2019t able to dominate the gain-line and the aerial battle that Jones saw a weak point, adding: \u201cConversely, when they weren\u2019t able to do that, they looked pretty ordinary.\u201d<\/p>\n Alan Quinlan accepts \u2018reality\u2019 that Ireland aren\u2019t on France\u2019s level as Matt Williams \u2018welcomes\u2019 Crowley-Prendergast ploy<\/a><\/p>\n Eddie Jones makes Sam Prendergast observation as incredible \u2018depth of talent\u2019 within French rugby hailed<\/a><\/p>\n Ireland\u2019s struggles and lack of officials\u2019 influence<\/p>\n McKenzie agreed with Jones\u2019 three talking points from the encounter and added that Ireland lacked answers to what France were throwing at them and were predictable when they did have possession.<\/p>\n He also praised France\u2019s attacking prowess and highlighted subtle tweaks in their set-phase attack from the lineouts.<\/p>\n \u201cMy thoughts are similar to Eddie\u2019s; I was actually impressed by the lack of influence the referees were having in the game until it got a bit messy in the last 15 minutes,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n \u201cFrance\u2019s ability to straighten the attack and to use just hands, across the board, means they\u2019re able to play very straight and use every person to be able to create the overlap and give their wingers some space, and their wingers profited from that.<\/p>\n \u201cMore tactically interesting, I was looking for things that were different from maybe last year, and France played their forwards much wider off their short lineouts.<\/p>\n \u201cMickael Guillard, their number five, was outstanding in terms of ball carries, but that third try, they had a second rower passing to the second rower out wide, that was off broken play, but they played their forwards much wider off short lineouts and then played back from that.<\/p>\n \u201cSo that was subtly different in terms of tactical approach; most teams play their forwards a bit closer to the lineout.\u201d<\/p>\n