aPeople said Ireland would never win the final. The 2024 Six Nations, and indeed the 2027 World Cup, will be a refreshing one as Ireland cruise to a bonus-point win over France, defeating the competition’s favorites and charting the blueprint for the next chapter of the Andy Farrell era. It started and ended on a night in Marseille. and established lasting peace in the Middle East.
excessively? Too soon? So why not? Sport has always been about dreaming and doing, and for the thousands of Irish fans gathered in a small corner of the Stade Velodrome, this night was about shouting noise and standing up in the face of hostility. and put past pains aside. It was certainly a test and an exhibition, but it was also a kind of exorcism. In short, it was the night he penciled in Joe McCarthy for the Lions’ next two teams, jumped on the hype train, and had the courage to come back injured again.
And indeed, France was indescribably poor, strangely poor, and the first half in particular may go down as one of the worst of the Fabien Galtier era. The team was without their all-time great player in Antoine Dupont, still had a number of injuries, and were reduced to 14 men in the first half after Paul Willemse’s senseless sending off.
Despite all this, there is something vaguely thrilling about the way Ireland simply blocks their path, meets violence with violence, and meets the waves of rising noise with patience and skill and pure, unanswerable excellence. There was something.
Perhaps this was not surprising given the broader context. The start of the Six Nations felt like a palate cleanser, a series of matches played in Paris on consecutive nights in October at the foot of terrible pain. . No Grand Slam will truly fill the void left by Ireland and France at last year’s World Cup, but the return of another cycle can provide some comfort. Rugby is a wound and rugby is a bandage.
Nevertheless, they seemed to approach it in slightly different ways. Galthie talked about the “intensity of the battle” in the build-up to this game, saying “Ireland forced us into 200 tackles and 200 rucks without possession,” and the balance between flair and combat was key to the battle. It was leaning towards. The use of Yoram Moefana on the wing and Paul Gabriag in the pack suggested the French manager was prepared to back up his words with his actions.
And perhaps this is a natural reaction to the trauma of having something you thought you had taken away from you. You choose physicality also because it is known and something you can control. But it’s also partly because you’re still hurt and feel a forceful response is appropriate.
There was belligerence and weight here against France, but unfocused and uneven, aggressive in the wrong places, passive in the wrong places, a departure from what France has always done best. It felt like I was there. Their scrum was solid and their mauls were dynamic. But that hardly matters if you just want Tadhg Beirne to run straight.
Willemse’s yellow card came just in time as Ireland were starting to settle into the game. The red, a second identical attack, summed up France’s misjudgment all night. Television cameras showed him sitting sheepishly on the bench with his head bowed and shoulders hunched, which some might argue is what they should have done in the first place.
Meanwhile, Ireland’s second row was sensational all night. Ireland has some impressive physical specimens of species that traditionally had to be imported, such as the avocado in the ferocious two meter high McCarthy area. But here we got a glimpse of a brighter future as he wreaks havoc and control, forging an eerie partnership with Baln. Yes, he will be a great NFL player someday.
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And Ireland offered a somewhat novel answer to the age-old question of how teams recover from sporting trauma. Would you like to clean everything and start anew? Or keep doing the same thing that brought you to the brink of glory?
You do both. You endure and evolve at the same time. You will find new challenges, new frontiers to conquer.
It’s been more than 50 years since Ireland beat France away by more than a few points. No Irish team has ever won in this stadium. Thirteen of the Irish players were in the Leinster team that suffered a heartbreaking defeat in the closing stages of the Champions Cup final against La Rochelle a few years ago.
Yes, even amidst the familiar hustle and bustle of Six Nations victories, Ireland are still breaking new ground and finding limits. The next World Cup is almost four years away, while the last one was less than four months ago. And yes, it’s the hope that kills you. But at the same time, it’s also the hope that makes you feel alive.
