France v Ireland Highlights

Fabien Galthié’s side wasted little time tightening their grip after the restart. Within minutes, France had secured the all-important bonus point, Louis Bielle-Biarrey striking for his second try in fortuitous fashion. Antoine Dupont’s chip ahead was followed by an attempted clearance from Thomas Ramos that skewed off the boot and fell perfectly into the winger’s path.

Bielle-Biarrey needed no second invitation, sprinting clear to touch down before Ramos added the conversion to stretch the lead to 29–0. The visitors finally found a foothold in the match on 58 minutes. Playing with penalty advantage, Sam Prendergast released Stuart McCloskey through a narrow gap, and the centre had the awareness to slip an inside pass to Nick Timoney, who crossed beneath the posts. Prendergast’s conversion reduced the deficit to 29–7. Ireland added a second score shortly afterwards, this time through replacement loosehead Michael Milne. After a series of close-range carries, the prop forced his way over, the TMO confirming the grounding before Prendergast again added the extras to make it 29–14. Any thoughts of a late revival were quickly extinguished.

France regained control of territory and possession, twice going close through Nicolas Depoortere before he was held up over the line. The final word, fittingly, belonged to the hosts. Slick handling down the right wing created space for Théo Attissogbe, who finished acrobatically in the corner to cap an emphatic team performance. Ramos converted to seal the scoring at 36–14.