World of Disappointment for Irish

By Cathal Dervan

France 43 

Ireland 21

IRELAND entered the Telstra Dome in Melbourne on a wave of optimism last Sunday night and left with their World Cup ambition dead, drowned in a sea of French blue.

The end of the road for Keith Wood and the end of Eddie O’Sullivan’s ambitions was never meant to happen like this in a thoroughly lop-sided quarterfinal.

A fortnight after the triumph in adversity that was a nail-biting win over Argentina, the Irish played second fiddle for all but a few of the 80 odd minutes played.

A week after the narrowest of defeats at the hands of the host nation on the same Melbourne pitch, Ireland practically trailed from start to finish.

And they had no excuses, no complaints and no answer to the relentless French pressure, applied quite brilliantly by their world class back row of Magne, Betsen and Harinordoquy.

France opened the scoring with a try in only the third minute, their exceptional out-half Michalak kicking through in the build-up to Magne’s touchdown in the corner.

And they never looked back, coach Bernard Laporte winning his tactical battle with O’Sullivan all over the field.

France controlled the scrums throughout, dominated the line-outs, infringed at the breakdowns and never let their Northern hemisphere rivals settle on the ball or on the field.

It was men against boys, practically from the word go.

By halftime the French had steamrollered their way to a 27-0 lead thanks to further tries from Dominici and Harinordoquy and the faultless boot of Michalak.

The Irish, searching in vain for a breakthrough, went further behind to a Crenca try on the resumption before O’Sullivan decided enough was enough and replaced Ronan O’Gara with David Humphreys and Reggie Corrigan with Marcus Horan on 48 minutes.

The changes made a difference but they were never going to alter the outcome. Ireland won the second half thanks to two tries from Brian O’Driscoll and a quite magnificent finish from Kevin Maggs, aided and abetted by three conversions from Humphreys.

But there was only ever going to be one winner in this game – and the French duly booked a semifinal date with England in Sydney next Saturday.

The Ireland coach reckons his Gallic cousins are good enough to win that one as well. And he had no light to shine on Ireland’s problems last Sunday.

O’Sullivan paid tribute to France’s powerful scrum afterwards when he said, “We were pulled and dragged everywhere. We were punch-drunk in every shape and form. It took a lot of character in the second-half to come out and play good rugby.”

Ireland’s aim going to Australia was to make the last eight but even O’Sullivan admitted that expectations had been raised after the safe passage through Pool A.

He continued, “It was a big ask to make the quarterfinals because of the pool we were in and we were very aware that getting there would define our World Cup.

“In some ways, it hasn’t, which is strange. I think our performances against Argentina and Australia redefined our World Cup in a sense that it gave us an expectation that we could reach the semifinal.

“Having achieved your goal of the quarter-finals and raised expectations beyond that, you’ve got to write that down as a very good World Cup for Ireland.

Try scorer O’Driscoll added to his reputation with another impressive outing – and two tries – but even that did little to restore his pride.

“It just wasn’t enough,” said O’Driscoll. “It was all uphill after the first half but full credit to the French, they finished the little gaps they made for themselves. The better team won on the night.”

And the final word went to captain Keith Wood after his final game in an Irish shirt.

“Early on we were in it on the scoreboard but France were irresistible,” said Wood. “To be brutally frank we were just hanging on. I hope Fabien Galthie and France go on to win the World Cup now.”

Ireland: Dempsey; Horgan, O’Driscoll, Maggs, Kelly; O’Gara, Stringer; Corrigan, Wood, Hayes, O’Kelly, O’Connell, Easterby, Gleeson, Costello. Replacements – Humphreys for O’Gara 48 mins; Horan for Corrigan 48 mins; Miller for Costello 68 mins; G. Easterby for Stringer 73 mins.