Ireland vs France: Where will ‘Six Nations decider’ be won and lost?
DUBLIN, Ireland — Ahead of the pivotal Six Nations match in Dublin on Saturday, there has been a dab of psychological jabbing from the French camp this week.
There are few people less welcome at the Aviva Stadium than Thierry Henry, he of the infamous handball in 2009 when France edged past the Republic of Ireland in their World Cup qualifier thanks to the flick of Henry’s wrist. But earlier this week, he was in the French camp, a guest of Antoine Dupont, addressing the team ahead of this match with Ireland.
Later in the week Fabien Galthié delivered a couple of extra little verbal pokes. He called on referee Angus Gardner to officiate Saturday’s match “decisively” and recalled James Lowe’s controversial score in 2023. Galthié also named a 7-1 split on the bench, laying his cards out, gambling on forward reinforcements at the expense the versatility of the backs.
It’s all shadow boxing, and Galthié is doing all he can to niggle Ireland ahead of the match which will surely decide the eventual destination of the championship.
Ireland are still on course for a Grand Slam and looking to win a historic third title on the bounce, while France are two from three. They hammered Wales and Italy, but sandwiched in-between them was a single-point defeat to England which left Les Bleus lamenting some astonishingly uncharacteristic profligacy.
This is an Ireland side who will give Galthié’s little barbs scant credence, bar the forward-loaded bench. But there have been subplots aplenty in their own way. One of the big selection calls from Simon Easterby was his decision to go with Jamie Osborne on the wing with Mack Hansen injured; the Munster faithful will be bemused by the decision to leave out Calvin Nash.
It will be Osborne’s third different position across his seven Ireland caps, with his versatility giving Ireland more room to manoeuvre for a 6-2 split on their bench.
“He’s a fabulous footballer, first and foremost,” Easterby said of Osborne. “He’s got a physical presence, and he’s also got a really smart rugby brain. He understands the game and the feel of the game. So we’ve got a bit of flexibility there in terms of his positioning, a flexibility to move him around a little bit in certain parts of the field so we can utilise his left, but he’s also got a right foot as well.”
Ireland have their titanic captain Caelan Doris fit and starting at No. 8 after he missed the win in Wales, while outside him is the familiar partnership of Jamison Gibson-Park and Sam Prendergast at fly-half. The latter has come in for some attention this week from the French media, who have been probing his defensive record in this championship. The young fly-half has done brilliantly on the front-foot but has missed 15 tackles in their three matches so far.
“If you want me to say that it is better to go for Prendergast than for Bundee Aki, well there you have it, all is said,” attack coach Patrick Arlettaz said earlier in the week. “Ireland has one of the best defences in the world, that’s the truth. And Prendergast is often very well surrounded there.”
France are not afraid to target an Irish fly-half — just ask Johnny Sexton, who was clattered by Mathieu Bastareaud in 2014.
So Prendergast can expect some rough treatment at the weekend. “I think at times he’s been excellent, and he’s put some real good shots in and at times he’s missed a couple and it’s important that he’s working incredibly hard at figuring lots of things out in his game,” Easterby said of Prendergast.
End of an Irish era
While Prendergast is at the start of his Ireland career, Saturday’s game will also be a poignant one for three departing Irish heroes. It’ll be the final time Peter O’Mahony, Cian Healy and Conor Murray run out at the Aviva Stadium in the green of Ireland.
O’Mahony and Healy will retire at the end of the season, while Murray will play on away from Munster.
That’s 371 caps worth of experience stepping into the sunset, a group who have won five Six Nations titles, including the 2018 and 2023 Grand Slams.
They’ve been there through this Irish renaissance but also experienced World Cup heartbreak. How Ireland would love to send them off with a win over France and a Grand Slam dream still alive, but don’t expect much romanticism in the process.
“Just because I’ve decided to retire doesn’t mean I’m starting to think about the past,” Healy said. “I’m here to do a job and ideally that job is two more wins and lift a trophy.”
But France will be looking to ruin that retirement party.
It is a great rugby absurdity that this group of French players have only won one Six Nations title in the last five years. Ireland’s defence will be stretched at the weekend. Les Bleus have the best player on the planet in Antoine Dupont, one of the most prolific wingers in Damien Penaud — who is just one try away from equalling Serge Blanco’s record of 38 tries for France — and the tournament top try-scorer in Louis Bielle-Biarrey. Osborne’s ability to nullify the Bielle-Biarrey threat will go a long way to deciding the balance of Saturday’s match.
France muscle up
France have recalled Romain Ntamack and Penaud for Saturday. Ntamack copped a two-match suspension for his idiotic hit on Ben Thomas in their opener, while Penaud was the blood sacrifice for France’s defeat at Twickenham. They’ll also keep everything crossed Gregory Alldritt comes through it unscathed, as he has struggled with a groin injury this week.
Then there’s the risk of the 7-1 split.
An injury in the backs will likely trigger the need for a sizeable reshuffling, potentially moving Dupont out of position in the process. Galthié can ill-afford to get this one wrong, aware of the uphill task facing his team.
Galthié was quick to highlight Ireland’s impressive home record this week — the hosts have won 29 of their last 31 matches — but also played down any notion this match would decide the eventual winner of the Six Nations.
“Let’s not talk about the consequences of this match before even having played it,” Galthie said. “Let’s play this match with pleasure, joy and freedom. But also with ambitions. We’ll talk about what’s next later.”
While Galthie is talking of “joy and freedom,” he’s doing all he can to influence referee Gardner in the build-up. He called for “fairness” on the key aspects of the match: the scrum, the breakdown, and tackling. “We want to have our say on the tempo of the match and its balance in key phases. We want to play with the referee.”
And then came his reference to the spectre of Six Nations matches past, as he referred to Lowe’s try in that 2023 epic, which TV replays later showed should’ve been disallowed as Lowe’s foot was in touch. If Saturday’s match is half as good as that Test two years back, then we’re in for a treat.
Winner-takes-all
If Ireland win, then the final weekend of the championship could have little on it. Ireland would expect to defeat Italy in Rome, leaving France and England scrapping for second place. But a France win will throw a monumental spanner in the works and disrupt this Irish procession. The whole balance of the tournament hinges on this.
There will be match-ups all over the field. Ireland will target Pierre-Louis Barassi in the centres and utilise their brilliant turnover threats while looking to create space on the wings.
France will try to disrupt Ireland’s half-back tempo, and get themselves in position where they can maul and pick-and-go their way to the try line.
And at the middle of it all will be two brilliant scrum-halves in Gibson-Park and Dupont.
There’s scope for new heroes to emerge, or for the familiarity of O’Mahony, Healy and Murray to have one last hurrah. And all the while, there’ll be the coaches, doing all they can to spur their team on to victory.
Come 2.15 p.m. on Saturday, the shadowboxing will stop, and a couple of hours later, we’ll have a decent idea of where the 2025 title is heading.
“That there’s very little between the teams three games in it becomes a crux game really in the championship, in terms of where the title might head,” Easterby said.
“We know that if we’re to do what we wanted to set out to do at the start this championship, we need to go and perform on Saturday and take away their strengths and impose ours on them.”
– Six Nations grades: England show progress; Wales get F
– Lions watch: Is Sam Prendergast pushing Finn Russell at No. 10?
– Monday overreactions: England’s attack in need of revamp?
– Who could replace Warren Gatland as Wales head coach?
– WATCH: Relive some of Six Nations’ classic games
– Six Nations and Women’s Six Nations: Full fixture list
– British & Irish Lions 2025: Australia tour fixtures
Source: espn.com