France shatter Irish dreams

Dominici claims a brace of tries

Two tries from Christophe Dominici helped France to beat Ireland 26-19 at windy Lansdowne in the Six Nations on Saturday, leaving Irish dreams of Grand Slam glory in tatters.

The clean sweep is now out of the question, but Ireland could yet win the championship -- as could France.  That will all be decided next week.

France showed their hand right at the start.  They ran the first ball they got with fullback Julien Laharrague in the backs.  They mauled their first line-out and rushed it forward.  It was a complete performance.  They dominated up front and they dominated out wide.

Their long line of defence was far more impenetrable than the Maginot line ever was, except for one glorious O'Driscoll moment that kept Ireland's hopes alive.

Wind at their backs, Ireland scored first when Sébastien Bruno was penalised at a tackle, and Ronan O'Gara goaled.  3-0 to Ireland after seven minutes.

When Simon Easterby was penalised at a tackle, France made it a line-out.  They made that a maul -- a running maul metres down the field.  The ball came back to Yann Delaigue who kicked a dropped goal.  3-3 after ten minutes.

When Delaigue tackled high, O'Gara kicked the goal.  6-3 to Ireland after 18 minutes.

Three minutes later Easterby was penalised for being off-side and Yachvili kicked a longish goal into the wind.  6-6.

Bruno infringed but O'Gara's place-kick faded away.  When Marconnet was penalised, the kick swung but this time got inside the upright.  O'Gara then became the highest points' scorer in Ireland's rugby history.  9-6 to Ireland after 24 minutes.

That was Ireland's bundle for the first half, but not France's.

Laharrague had almost worked an overlap for Cédric Heymans but a hand got in the way.  Then as France went right he passed inside to Heymans whop gave outside to Christophe Dominici who handed off Denis Hickie to score in the corner.  France led 11-9 after 28 minutes.

Surprisingly France were giving Ireland a tough time in the line-out.  Yannick Nyanga pinched an Irish ball, palming it back quickly.  Jérôme Thion gave to Yannick Jauzion who gave to debutant Benoît Baby just inside France's half.

The young centre pinned back his ears and simply ran the 52 metres to score a sensational try.  Yachvili converted.  18-9 to France and they were full value for their lead, wind or no wind.

In the second half Ireland were into the wind and outscored France, but it was just not enough.

O'Gara kicked a penalty when Baby was guilty of a ridiculous headbutt.  18-12.  But at this stage O'Gara was kicking into the wind a great deal and for no profit.

With 19 minutes to go Yachvili kicked a goal for a tackle infringement.  21-12 to France.

To their credit and honour, Ireland were not done and were attacking more now, eschewing kicks at goal in search of tries but finding a way through hard against the blue defence.

Then Paul O'Connell won an Irish line-out.  He won it in the No.2 position which gave field width but also room for loose forwards to defend.  Forget all that.  Brian O'Driscoll tucked the ball under an arm and raced past replacement Frédéric Michalak whose attempted tackle had no force.  O'Driscoll swept past Heymans and scored under the posts.  O'Gara converted.  21-19 to France with seven minutes.

But those seven minutes belonged to France as they kept Ireland pinned in their own territory.  At a tackle/ruck the referee told Peter Stringer to play it.  Instead Serge Betsen homed in on the ball.  Brave Malcolm O'Kelly managed to recover the ball but Betsen got the ball off him and smuggled it to Sylvain Marconnet.  The big prop gave the pass to Dominici who had a free run  for the line.  That made it 26-19 to France with two minutes to play.

France played those two minutes well in Irish territory.

Man of the match:  Brian O'Driscoll scored a great try, and so did Benoît Baby but he later blotted his copybook.  Yannick Nyanga won valuable line-out ball for France.  One of his wins provided the ball for Baby's try.  But our choice is between hyperactive, calm, relatively new man Julien Laharrague and, our eventuaL choice as man-of-the-match -- darting, wholehearted Christophe Dominici.

Moment of the Match:  There were two -- Benoît Baby's try and Brian O'Driscoll's try.  O'Driscoll's try required greater effort and is our choice.

Villain of the Match:  It was well-mannered match at a well-mannered ground, which made Benoît Baby's action on O'Driscoll all the sillier.

The scorers:

For Ireland:
Try:  O'Driscoll
Con:  O'Gara
Pens:  O'Gara 5

For France:
Try:  Baby, Dominici
Con:  Yachvili
Pen:  Yachvili 3
Drop:  Delaigue

The teams:

Team:  15 Julien Laharrague, 14 Christophe Dominici, 13 Benoit Baby, 12 Yannick Jauzion, 11 Cédric Heymans, 10 Yann Delaigue (Frédéric Michalak, 69) 9 Dimitri Yachvili, 8 Julien Bonnaire, 7 Yannick Nyanga, 6 Serge Betsen, 5 Jérôme Thion, 4 Fabien Pelous (Pascal Papé, 71), 3 Nicolas Mas (Pieter de Villiers, 41), 2 Sébastien Bruno (Dimitri Szarzewski, 77), 1 Sylvain Marconnet.
Unused replacements: 20 Pierre Mignoni, 22 David Marty.

Ireland:  15 Geordan Murphy, 14 Girvan Dempsey, 13 Brian O'Driscoll (captain), 12 Kevin Maggs, 11 Denis Hickie, 10 Ronan O'Gara, 9 Peter Stringer, 8 Anthony Foley (Eric Miller, 70), 7 Johnny O'Connor, 6 Simon Easterby, 5 Paul O'Connell, 4 Malcolm O'Kelly, 3 John Hayes, 2 Shane Byrne, 1 Reggie Corrigan (Marcus Horan, 70).
Unused replacements:  16 Frankie Sheahan, 18 Donncha O'Callaghan, 20 Guy Easterby, 21 David Humphreys, 22 Gavin Duffy.

Referee:  Tony Spreadbury (England)
Touch judges:  Paul Honiss (New Zealand), Nigel Whitehouse (Wales)
Assessor:  Ian Scotney (Australia)
Television match official:  Roy Maybank (England)