wellnessfitpro
Key events
“Despite the (currently) somewhat lopsided scoreline, that has been a hugely entertaining game.” says Bill Preston. “However, as I write it looks like Ireland finally are getting a stomp on and gaining momentum. A few lucky bounces, some jinks, and dusting the game with thrilling heroics they might come out for this with a more palatable score”.
63 mins. Both benches have been emptied and it has led to France becoming lackadaisical with the basics: restarts, securing possession at maul/breakdown, too many one-out runners without support. This has come at a time when Ireland’s subs have brought some edge and fight and the scoreboard is reflecting this in the previous five minutes.
TRY! France 29 – 14 Ireland (Michael Milne)
62 mins. A textbook catch and drive from the lineout allows McCloskey to have a powerful short carry before Milne muscles over from a metre out. There’s a slight delay while the TMO checks the grounding, but it’s all good and the game is suddenly more interesting for visitors.
60 mins. The best period of the game continues for Ireland as Stockdale is first to an up and under, which is then worked left where Dupont slaps at it to give a away a penalt for a deliberate knock-on. A fantastic touch is found by Prendergast and a 5m lineout is coming for Ireland.
TRY! France 29 – 7 Ireland (Nick Timoney)
59 mins. Ireland are into the France 22 for the first time in what feels like and hour, where on a penalty advantage Crowley and Prendergast combine in midfield to finf Timoney who puts in a nifty step off his left foot to score under the posts
Prendergast converts.
57 mins. McCloskey takes a very strong run at first receiver from a scrum, but the recycle is a mess and France have the ball back. That carry deserved a lot better.
54 mins. Prendergast is not thinking very clearly tonight and the latest example is his attempt to force a long pass in midfield when Attisogbe is in his eyeline and in the way. The winger duly snaffles it and flings an outrageous one handed offload out of the tackle to Auradou who doesn’t have the gas to accelerate away from the cover in the 22.
52 mins. There is some ball for Ireland just inside the France half, which ends when Jelonch hammers a tackle that spills the ball. France win a penalty at the resulting scrum and this is becoming increasingly more ugly for the visitors.
“Ireland’s refusal to invest minutes into players under 28 years old for the last 5 years seems to be catching up with them rapidly.” says Ben-Rus on Bluesky
47 mins. Some will say that the Ramos volley was a slice that jammily found a team mate. To those I would say look at how many times he’s done that this season for Toulouse; the man is a marvel.
TRY! France 29 – 0 Ireland (Louis Bielle-Biarrey)
46 mins. My oh my, what a try. Ramos screams for Dupont to chip over the top, which he duly does. The fullback reaches the ball and volleys it off the outside of his left boot to Bielle-Biarrey who races away to score another.
Ramos takes a breath and converts.
45 mins. France form a maul from the lineout catch, but McCarthy gets amongst it to spoil and win a scrum when the ball is unplayable. There follows a lesser spotted scrum penalty won by Ireland as the French front row lose their feet.
43 mins. After Ireland clear to touch France win a lineout and mither a bit with some phases in midfield before Dupont decides he’s had enough and kicks it away. It remains in play and France come back, win a penalty at the breakdown, but carry on with an advantage. There is a chink of light on the left that Ramos nearly exploits, but ultimately nothing happens and we come back for the penalty.
Jalibert sends it to the corner.
Second Half!
We’re away again.
I’m getting a lot of people emailing me to point out my lyric from the previous post is Coldplay, not Sheryl Crow.
1. Yes it is Sheryl Crow
2. I would never quote Coldplay
3. Quiet
As Sheryl Crow once sang, “no-one said it would be easy, but no-one said it would be this hard”. Ireland will know what she was on about after forty minutes of being whomped from pillar to post by a revitalised France team compared to the Autumn.
The home side are playing the conditions when they have to and springing to life with the ball in hand when it makes sense to. They have been helped by Ireland’s, er, naive approach in difficult positions – which is about as politely as I can put it – that has led to possession and scores from Les Bleus.
But, make no mistake, France are a significantly better team at present in this match.
HALF TIME!
40 mins. An angled kick from Jalibert finds touch and the whistle finds Dickson’s lips to end the half
39 mins. Ireland are wishing for half-time in a very real way. They contain more French carries before Dupont tries a chip over the tip that Osborne dispatches over the sideline.
37 mins. Osborne takes a kick deep in his 22 and is immediately swarmed by French chasers. He does remarkably well to recycle it, but it simply invites another attack from France after Gibson-Park finds a short touch.
TRY! France 22 – 0 Ireland (Charles Ollivon)
34 mins. Jalibert chips and gathers his own kicks to pop the ball to the right on the Irish 22. Gros is the man in support and releases it to Guillard who flips it back inside to his boilerhouse brother Ollivon to gallop forward a dive-slide over.
Ramos coverts.
30 mins. A couple of minutes of the sides kicking through the rain ends with Ramos finding a solid touch in the Irish half. The visitors have some ball from the lineout and are into the French half working some phases for the first time.
The ball comes to Prendergast, who grubbers the ball forward into the in-goal and runs shoulder to shoulder with Ramos to battle for it. Ref Dickson concludes it was too much pasty from the Irishman and penalises him.
PENALTY! France 15 – 0 Ireland (Thomas Ramos)
27 mins. Inevitably, Ireland are too keen at the ruck in the face of the blue onslaught and are penalised. Ramos points at the posts and adds three points with little fuss.
26 mins. Beirne wins a brilliant turnover at the breakdown around halfway, but the ball soon whipped back by France who are up to the 22 via Ramos and Dupont. They work up to eight phases and are camped in the middle of the red zone.
TRY! France 12 – 0 Ireland (Mathieu Jalibert)
22 mins. France step left in the scrum five metres out and this allows Jalibert to run to the blindside, take the pass and step Prendergast to ground.
Ramos pulls the conversion just wide.
21 mins. Back into the 22 go France, with Ramos having a carry up the right before the ball comes left to Depoortere. He is snagged by Ringrose in midfield and throws a lovely offload directly to Prendergast – who I assume screamed “Oui!” – but the young 10 can do nothing but run over his own line and shovel it to O’Brien to be swamped by blue defenders.
“Looked like two forward passes in the build up to that France try.” Joshua Keeling points out. “Surprising how little time the officials spent looking at it.”
It’s not surprising when you consider it’s Karl Dickson, who in the face of alternative views and evidence has more certainty than Karoline Leavitt.
16 mins. France are back on the ball and moving forward into the Ireland half; slowly and irresistibly, they are beginning to dominate the game. Ireland get among the breakdown, but knock-on as they scrap for the ball.
TRY! France 7 – 0 Ireland (Louis Bielle-Biarrey)
13 mins. Prendergast covers a kick that he thought would be a 50:22 and so he literally volleys it like soccer right back clearing upfield. The ball reaches a blue shirt who feeds Bielle-Biarrey to accelerate away from Gibson-Park, fall over after a Prendergast ankle tap, get up again immediately and leg it over the line to score.
Ramos converts.
(and it wasn’t a 50:22, the ball had been taken back in by France)
10 mins. As predicted, there is a lot of kicking early doors. Ireland kicking for their chasers to compete, with France taking more of a territorial approach. It’s honours even so far, but the pressure on the French back three from the air is relentless so far.
9 mins. A clever kick-pass from Prendergast finds O’Brien on the right wing, who takes two paces before chipping it on for himself to chase. The French are well resourced in the backfield to cover, gather and clear.
7 mins. The attack is contained by France and a forced pass in midfield is spilled by a green hand. France will have a scrum in their own 22.
5 mins. The Ireland scrum creaks, but holds enough for Gibson-Park to clear their lines. This but of solid work is followed soon after by Osborne banging a MASSIVE 50:22 to give his side their first attacking platform of the game.
2 mins. A settlling carry from France leads to a Dupont clearance to touch. A zero percent nonsense start from the home side. Ireland take possession from the lineout, but do nothing but kick it away as the teams feel each other out.
Suddenly the ball is loose after an Attisogbe slap back that finds its way to Moefana. Les Bleus spring rapildy up and left to Bielle-Biarrey who executes a trademark chip and chase which Ollivon is this close to getting to a few metres from the line. Ireland do enough to nullify the ball in-goal, but they will now have to face a defensive 5m scrum.
Kick Off!
Karl Dickson sounds a toot on his disciplinary flute and Sam Prendergast punts the ball long with his drop-kick and the 2026 Six Nations is underway
The Stade de France is plunged into darkness, the only lumens coming from the spotlights of red, white and blue that illuminate the rain falling as we head towards kick-off. The teams will enter the arena and will take their places for the formalities.
For those who are interested, here are the officials for the match:
-
Referee: Karl Dickson (England)
-
Assistant Referees: Angus Gardner (Australia), Jordan Way (Australia)
-
TMO (Television Match Official): Ian Tempest (England)
What are your predictions for the the match or the tournament more widely? How much will you miss Penaud looking clueless yet smoking every defender in sight? This and other views are welcome on the email or you can shout at me on Bluesky if that’s your thing.
Have a read of our tournament preview while you wait
Teams
France welcome back Antoine Dupont as scrum-half and captain, where he will reform his partnership from the last World Cup with Mathieu Jalibert. In the forwards, an exciting new boilerhouse pairing of Charles Ollivon and Mickael Guillard will bring some dynamism. Anthony Jelonch is preferred to Alldritt at 8.
Ireland have taken a back to the future approach, with Stuart McCloskey and Jacob Stockdale returning to the back division in a major tournament. Jamie Osborne continues at fullback with Hugo Keenan still unavailable. Sam Prendergast is given the nod to start at 10. Up front, injuries in the front row bring in Jeremy Loughman and Thomas Clarkson at prop, with Michael Milne on the bench.
France
Thomas Ramos; Theo Attissogbe, Nicolas Depoortere, Yoram Moefana, Louis Bielle-Biarrey; Matthieu Jalibert, Antoine Dupont; Jean‑Baptiste Gros, Julien Marchand, Dorian Aldegheri; Charles Ollivon, Mickael Guillard; François Cros, Oscar Jegou, Anthony Jelonch.
Replacements: Peato Mauvaka, Rodrigue Neti, Regis Montagne, Hugo Auradou, Emmanuel Meafou, Lenni Nouchi, Baptiste Serin, Kalvin Gourgues.
Ireland
Jamie Osborne; Tommy O’Brien, Garry Ringrose, Stuart McCloskey, Jacob Stockdale; Sam Prendergast, Jamison Gibson‑Park; Jeremy Loughman, Dan Sheehan, Thomas Clarkson; Joe McCarthy, Tadhg Beirne; Cian Prendergast, Josh van der Flier, Caelan Doris.
Replacements: Rónan Kelleher, Michael Milne, Finlay Bealham, James Ryan, Jack Conan, Nick Timoney, Craig Casey, Jack Crowley.
Preamble
Here’s one you’ve not heard before: welcome to this Thursday evening opening match of the Six Nations. What with this, all the AI telling us stuff that’s wrong, and washing machines that inexplicably have wifi, truly we are living in the future.
The future is very much the concern for both of these teams as this marks the proper start of the Rugby World Cup 2027 run-in. The Six Nations is, of course, a tournament of great import and heritage in its own right, but only a fool would argue that Messrs Galthie and Farrell are not keeping more than half an eye on Australia in eighteen months’ time.
With that in mind, Fabien Galthie has loaded his selection dice into his favourite blunderbuss in order to spin them as hard as possible, while also taking public opinion’s eye out. The languid maestro Damien Penaud is jettisoned from the wing, and Gregory Alldritt, the steadfast yet dynamic Number 8 of recent vintage is ushered out. But most surprising of all is the absence of Gael Fickou, the best 12 in the world for a period, and lynchpin of the the France defensive system. So what does it all mean for Les Bleus, a team that are current champions, let’s not forget?
As it does so often of late, the rugby tide appears to have turned to wash up every bit of success on a beach in South Africa for Rassie Erasmus to stuff in his treasure chest. Note has been taken of this, and teams are pivoting to the Boks’ way of playing: powerful, tight, kick-to-compete orientated, and a bench full of as many massive units as possible to splinter souls late in the game. England took it on in 2025 to some success, and now it appears Ireland and France are trying the same. Hence, no place for the aerially challenged Penaud and on the Irish side Andy Farrell has done away with his fourth favourite child, James Lowe. Penaud can’t catch a high ball, Lowe would take 23 minutes to run after one; and with the game going the way it is, then choices have to be made.
On top of this shift for Ireland they have a squad hammered by injuries prior to a big tournament; a situation usually exclusively preserved for Scotland.
All things considered, this is a hard game to predict stylistically, as the selections suggest new gameplans aplenty but we won’t know until the studs hit the turf and the ball is up in the air. Even with such mystery, the odds are still with a France win.
#France #Ireland #Nations #opener #live #Nations
