France beats Ireland to underline status as Six Nations rugby favourites
France's 30-24 triumph over Ireland on Saturday has put them firmly on course for Six Nations success, but scrumhalf Antoine Dupont talked down a potential Grand Slam, saying the team were wary of Scotland after costly defeat in the past.
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It was a second home win in a row for France, who beat Italy last Sunday.
They are three points ahead of Ireland in the standings and are now the only side that could complete this season's Grand Slam.
The fixture had been a sell-out since last autumn and the atmosphere in Paris was taken up a notch pre-match with tricolour flags handed out amongst the 79,115 fans in the crowd.
France scored tries through captain Antoine du Pont and loosehead Cyrille Baille while fullback Melvyn Jaminet kicked six penalties and a conversion.
Mack Hansen, Josh van der Flier and Jamison Gibson-Park were Ireland’s try scorers with Joey Carberry converting all three and slotting over a late penalty.
Les Bleus remportent le match ! 30-24 ! La France reste invaincue dans le Tournoi des #SixNations pic.twitter.com/ZmcM6fZHv3
— francetvsport (@francetvsport) February 12, 2022
"That was tough, we had a tough as teak adversary even if that does not surprise us. It is a beautiful victory," said France coach Fabien Galthie.
Ireland were without captain Johnny Sexton due to a hamstring strain with the 36-year-old replaced by Joey Carbery, making his maiden Six Nations start after coming off the bench in last weekend's victory over Wales.
"We're very disappointed. We started the game poorly," said Ireland skipper James Ryan.
"That gave them momentum in the first half. We showed some grit in the second half but we ended up chasing the game a bit."
Cautious
France now faces Scotland on 26 February and Wales on 11 March, before hosting England in the final fixture of their campaign on 19 March.
France finished second in the 2020 and 2021 editions of the Six Nations rugby tournament with defeats against Scotland proving costly on both occasions.
"We have all learned from the last two years, where we may have lost the tournament after a defeat to Scotland," Dupont told reporters on Saturday.
"So we are not going to talk about Grand Slam for the moment.
"We will focus on the next match because we know the challenge that awaits us. We know this Scottish team well, so we're hoping that we will have something nice to play for in a month."
(-with newswires)
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