2024-02-02 21:56:16
Outnumbered for fifty minutes, the French team, totally overwhelmed in the first half before raising its head in the second, suffered a severe defeat (17-38) to raise the curtain on the first day of the Tournament, Friday February 2 in Marseille.
A first half with three minutes of lightening (the first two and the last), a second half barely more balanced, and curtain. Three months after its traumatic elimination in the quarter-finals of the World Cup, the France team returned to competition with a defeat against Ireland (17-38). Deprived of their star Antoine Dupont, Fabien Galthié’s Blues stammered in their rugby, crushed by the Irish before losing their second row Paul Willemse, guilty of two dangerous tackles each punished with a yellow card.
Staying alive at the end of the first half driven by Mauvaka and Damian Penaud (10-17), the Blues hit the ground running again from the start, conceding another try. After a nice touch from Jalibert, the French returned to the ground, the Irish collapsing maul after maul… all the way to the Celts end zone (17-24). Test and yellow card, the two teams were on equal terms, or even a little more since the last terrible player in French rugby, Posolo Tuilagi, was taking his first international steps. But unable to find themselves, the Blues did not take advantage of it. On the contrary, stifled by the opposing superiority, they gave in to the attacks of Andy Farrell’s men who took off again (17-31), with a try at the end by Sheehan. Ten minutes of ineffective attempts later, the French took the green tide one last time, the opening half Jack Crowley, untenable in Marseille, concluding the score between the posts while the Vélodrome emptied.
#black #hole #attack #Nations #Tournament #Libération