France crush Ireland to move into Six Nations pole position
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DUBLIN :France moved into pole position for the Six Nations title on Saturday, withstanding an early Antoine Dupont injury to thrash Ireland 42-27 with a blistering second half that dealt a likely fatal blow to the hosts' hopes of a record third title in a row.
France's hopes in a must-win game looked in trouble when Dupont hobbled off after 27 minutes and Ireland led early in the second half but three tries in 12 minutes from Paul Boudehent, Louis Bielle-Biarrey and Oscar Jegou left the ill-disciplined Irish stunned and with their Grand Slam dreams in tatters.
Damian Penaud put the icing on the cake, equalling Serge Blanco's French record of 38 tries before two late Irish tries flattered a scoreboard that contained more French points in Dublin than ever before in a game most had predicted would be decided by far fewer.
The bonus-point victory moves France two points ahead of Ireland and six clear of England, meaning any kind of win over Scotland next week will almost certainly secure their second title since 2010, given their far superior points difference.
While they will likely have to finish the job without Dupont whom coach Fabian Galthie suspected suffered a serious knee injury, France took immense pleasure that their high risk, high reward call to pack the bench with seven forwards and just one back for the second game in a row paid off.
"We had lots of confidence in the bench. We knew the contract was to play for 50 minutes and leave everything on the pitch and they will finish the job," number eight Gregory Alldritt told a press conference.
Long billed as the likely title decider for effectively the fourth year in a row, it was a predictably breathless opening with Ireland bossing the breakdown, set piece and forcing early penalties but unable to make the pressure count.
The game took its first big swing after 20 minutes when Ireland lock Joe McCarthy was yellow carded for needlessly pulling back Thomas Ramos off the ball. It took France less than a minute to take advantage with a try for flying Bielle-Biarrey.
If Ireland had felt hard done by when James Lowe - one of their players of the tournament - limped off injured in the warm-up, France suffered a nightmare blow shortly after the try with Dupont's injury.
A Sam Prendergast penalty cut the deficit before another sloppy Irish error allowed Ramos to strike right back. The Irish flyhalf, who struggled with kicks from hand, struck another from dead on halfway to make the score 8-6 to France at the break.
'HARD TO STOP'
It was the third time Ireland had trailed at halftime in four games but it did not feel like it as they brought the momentum into the second period and hooker Dan Sheehan went over in the corner within three minutes to put them ahead.
But the next topsy-turvy turn was minutes away as Boudehent put France back in front in controversial fashion - with Peter O'Mahony deemed to have been cleared out legally - and Ireland wing Calvin Nash sin-binned for a foul in the build-up that meant flanker Jegou replacing centre Pierre-Louis Barassi.
That was the cue for France to really turn it on and man of the match Bielle-Biarrey's 11th try in his last seven games was a stunner as he grubber-kicked around Prendergast and won the goal-line sprint.
It was a dream scenario for the brilliant French, running riot against a ragged, tired and totally overwhelmed defence as they deployed their forward-heavy bench with makeshift centre Jegou securing the bonus point before the hour mark.
Penaud added his record-equalling try five minutes from time before Cian Healy marked his final Ireland home game and Jack Conan his 50th cap with consolation tries that did little to ease a crushing defeat, Ireland's second at home in 25 games.
"They're a hard team to stop when they get momentum," said Ireland interim coach Simon Easterby, ruing missing early opportunities before conceding too easily.
"It's probably a large part down to some of the collisions that we weren't able to put in place ourselves, but also credit to the way they try and play the game."
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