Ireland lock horns with France in centenary test match

An historic occasion set for Sunday as Round 2 will conclude with the old rivalry between Ireland and France celebrating its 100^th test match.

After their drubbing of Italy in Round 1, Fabien Galthie and his charges will be only too aware that the business end of the competition is now knocking at their door as they travel to Dublin were a wounded Irish outfit lie in wait.

Ireland suffered the misfortune of having Peter O’Mahony issued with his marching orders by referee Wayne Barnes after the flanker executed a brutal clean-out of Wales’ tightead prop Tomas Francis at a ruck. O’Mahony was shown a red card and has since been handed a three-match suspension. He left the field after just 13 minutes of the first half, putting his teammates’ backs up against the wall for the remainder of the game.

Johnny Sexton and his charges earned the right to hold their heads up high when the game was over, however. The men in green even managed to hold the lead at half-time despite their numerical disadvantage which, as expected, proved too much to contain in the second stanza as Wales slowly wrestled the game away from Ireland.

France, after a great 2020 campaign which saw them just miss out on the title, hit the ground running against an Italian side which showed little in the way of fighting spirit and did not, in any way, offer themselves as a spanner in the works of Charles Ollivon’s men.

It was an enviable opportunity for the French to shake off the cobwebs and get the hearts pumping for the challenging road ahead.

The teams last met in the final round of the 2020 tournament with France taking the honours 35-27.

Of the 99 fixtures between these two sides, it is the French who have the upper hand with 57 victories to Ireland’s 35. In terms of total points, France have amassed 1584 while the Irish have 1178 to their name.

Perhaps the biggest talking point associated with this encounter is the phenomenal form of French scrumhalf Antoine Dupont, who is now commonly recognised as the finest number 9 in the world at present. With the 1.74, 85kg general marshalling his troops, no defence is safe. While much of his success is owed to the formidable pack of forwards in front of him, Dupont exhibits the ability to make something out of nothing and laying a hand on him when he probes the gaps is proving a nightmare for opponents.

In order to neutralise the threat that is the 24 year-old Dupont, the Irish pack are going to have to make certain they are up for the challenge – not an easy task when one considers men like Bernard Le Roux, Paul Willemse, Julien Marchand and Gregory Alldritt, who will all be in blue – for if the French forwards gain ascendency, Dupont is likely to run the Irish ragged, just as he proved he can do against the Italians a week ago.

While it may not be an easy one to call, it is difficult to picture France losing after their display last weekend. Ireland did, however, deliver a particularly gutsy performance against Wales after being forced to play nearly the entire game a man down. Do the men in green have enough to extinguish the bright French flair?