Ireland got their 2024 Six Nations campaign off to the perfect start on Friday night dismantling France 38-17 at the Stade Vélodrome in Marseille.
Throughout the eighty minutes, Andy Farrell’s team scored five tries and played excellent attack and defense.
In his tournament debut, Joe McCarthy put up an inspiring effort at second row, winning Player of the Match.
Speaking after the game, France’s defense coach Shaun Edwards expressed his admiration for his opponents, saying they had impressed him greatly.
He disclosed that only four times during the game did Ireland give the ball away, which is an amazing figure that shows how good they were.
Edwards reveals Ireland only gave the ball away four times against France
“We played against a team ranked number two in the world and we just couldn’t get any turnovers at the breakdown,” he said.
“I thought the ruck speed was absolutely unbelievable. They only lost four balls the whole game whether that be handling errors, line-outs…total turnovers was four, it’s just absolutely incredible.
“The performance from the Irish team I thought was fantastic but we should’ve been more active in that area trying to create the turnovers.
Speaking of Paul Willemse, who is “vital” to halting the maul, Edwards also described his dismissal as a major blow.
“We lost a total of fourteen balls, so it doesn’t surprise me when you are down to fourteen men. They lost four, so our defeat doesn’t really surprise me.
“They are an elite group of players. Naturally, I would expect to win if the scores were reversed and we had fifteen while they had fourteen.”
Ireland’s next match is against Italy at the Aviva Stadium on Sunday, while France is looking to get back together before playing Scotland in Edinburgh.
