France edge out Ireland at a packed Aviva Stadium

France beat Ireland 25-22 in Dublin yesterday in what was the defending champions’ second straight win of the 2011 Six Nations championship. Poor discipline ultimately cost Ireland, who actually scored three tries to the one of the visiting French.

Ireland went ahead through Fergus McFadden while Morgan Parra kicked the points on offer for the visitors. A late try in the first half to Tomos OLeary meant that Ireland went into the halftime break 15-12 up.

Parra and Dimitri Yachvili gave France the lead though, before Maxime Medard took them to 25-15 with his try, only to have Ireland come back into it with a Jamie Heaslip try after a sustained period of pressure. Ronan OGara dutifully slotted the conversion.

As the clock ticked down with only a three point margin, France did what they could to run it down but slipped up and spilt the ball, giving Ireland one last chance, which they failed to take advantage of.

“We had a chance with three minutes to go. We were 10 yards from their line, they were scrambling but we coughed up another ball, said Ireland captain Brian ODriscoll.

“I thought we were going to do to them what they did to us at Croke Park four years ago when they won in the last minute, but again we coughed up the ball too easily.

“The chance was there for us to take it but we didn’t. That’s a bitter enough pill to swallow. We felt like we had massive capability to score tries. The chances were there but we weren’t clinical and that’s what’s killing us.”

French coach Marc Lievremont was pleased with his teams ability to stay in the game despite conceding well worked tries. “They managed to score tries and put us under pressure over 80 minutes. With more patience we’ll learn to find solutions to these problems.

“I liked the way we bounced back. It could have been a totally disastrous match but we fought our way back. Ireland could have won but overall we played well,” he said.

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