France v Ireland: Five takeaways as ‘marked contrast’ between the 10s sees ‘slow as dial-up’ Sam Prendergast have Test he’ll ‘want to forget’
Matthieu Jalibert and Sam Prendergast had contrasting nights for France and Ireland respectively.
Following a 36-14 victory for France against Ireland in the 2026 Six Nations opener at the Stade de France, here’s our five takeaways from the game.
The top line
France crushed Ireland in Paris in a 50 minute display of aerial and physical dominance that saw off a lacklustre and directionless display from Andy Farrell’s men. Five tries, coming from Louis Bielle-Biarrey (2), Matthieu Jalibert, Charles Ollivon (his 18th in 49 Tests, a record strike rate for a back five forward), and Theo Attissogbe saw them home.
However, a spirited second half effort from the visitors saw them grab two of their own, winning the half 14-10, as their bench made a huge impact as France tired. Their scores came from Nick Timoney and Michael Milne, but it was all too little too late, after the damage done by a rampant French first half performance.
Mickael Guillard took the Player of the Match award but in truth the award could have gone to any of the starting French back five forwards or three quarters as the Six Nations holders treated their fans to that first 50 minutes of outstanding rugby.
French changes pay dividends
Fabien Galthie will look back through his selectorial notebook next week with an array of ticks next to many of his new selections and recalled players.
In the three-quarter line, Nicolas Depoortere bristled with power and aggression, smashing nine massive carries for 49 metres – but it was where he made them – right down the middle of the park – that killed Ireland as both he and Guillard (16 for 46 metres) created havoc in the Irish primary defence. And, on the wing Attissogbe barely put a foot wrong – and his last moment try was richly deserved for an outstanding evening in the air and in support.
Up front, the rearrangement of the pack may have taken some scrum effort away from Les Bleus, but what it gave them was carrying and breakdown power in abundance. At the heart of the breakdown work were the iconic duo of Francois Cros and Ollivon, whilst Anthony Jelonch and Oscar Jegou led the defensive effort with 16 and 15 tackles respectively.
However, for all the selectorial ticks, there will be concern about how far France dropped off once they unloaded their bench. For sure, they took off some world class players, and they’ll argue that this experience will build depth – but there were nerves at the end of the game that simply should not have been there, and that will be a focus of the French debrief.
Breakdown and contestables
The key to modern Test dominance is wining the gainline and aerial battle – and to take a moment to review this match reveals all. At the breakdown, France’s five back-rowers (with Guillard and Ollivon both playing out of favoured position in the second-row) obliterated a very competent and experienced Irish outfit, with Cros absolutely dominating the ruck retention and demonstrating just how much Les Bleus and Toulouse have missed his relentless work-rate.
France maintained 96% ruck retention whilst stealing six of Ireland’s. Yes, Ireland managed seven turnovers in return, three from the outstanding Tadhg Beirne, but the difference was that France were playing at the edge for a lot of the match, taking the ball into stretch moments that left them vulnerable.
The aerial battle was a whitewash; 19 contestables, 15 fell France’s way with Ireland managing to recover only four. For a nation that places so much pride on aerial control in wet weather conditions, this was a disaster – of both tactic and execution – and one that removed so much momentum from the visitors.
With no scrum platform, and beaten in two critical areas of the game, it’s credit both to Ireland’s spirit and their heart that they stayed in this game until the end, but it’s clear to see they’ve a lot of serious structural engineering to undertake before they face Italy in the next round.
Half-back contrast
The contrast at 10 could not have been more marked. All of the rattle leading up to the match was how Jalibert and Antoine Dupont would hinge, but based on this display, there’s little need to worry. The Bordeaux-Begles magician reined in his natural extravagance and was magical in keeping his carriers on the front foot, with an array of passes inside to deliver hammer blows, regularly through the outstanding Guillard and Depoortere, that pummelled Ireland senseless.
With France playing short off nine when Jalibert didn’t have the ball, the Irish defence spent its time retreating into scramble – and the visitors simply couldn’t get enough bodies behind the ball to stop wave after wave of direct French mobility.
And when the moment game to unleash, both Les Bleus half-backs needed no second invitation as they demonstrated that any fear about their arranged marriage was somewhat premature.
On the flip side, Sam Prendergast had yet another top-flight Test he’ll want to forget. Put simply the Leinster 10 looked as slow as dial-up internet compared to France’s 15-man fibre broadband, a man dazzled and lost in the headlights of countless French juggernauts.
His pause passing prevented any Irish backline momentum, and his backline were sitting ducks, waiting to be picked off by the brilliance of the French back five time and time again and he offered zero threat, control or intellect to an Irish backline starved of control. And, in the second half, to add insult to the near terminal injury that was Prendergast’s hapless volley for Bielle-Biarrey’s first try, Thomas Ramos, with remarkable symmetry, showed the Irishman how it’s done as he followed suit with a rather more effective volley for the flying wing’s second of the night.
If ever a match was defined by the contrasting fortunes of two players, it was this, and those players were Jalibert and Prendergast – and for vastly different reasons.
Implications
Ireland will rightly point out that their injury list is as long as the Channel Tunnel and the team they fielded tonight was well short of anything resembling a first choice 23. But to claim that in isolation would be completely ignoring that this generation of Irish players have grown old together without the necessary rejuvenation underneath to create real depth.
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Notwithstanding their complete abdication of control at 10, it’s hard to think of an area where they came close to matching their hosts for 50 minutes; as noted previously they were completely outgunned in the aerial contestables over the course of the game.
What will please Farrell is the manner with which his finishers took the last 30 of the match to the hosts and how they took that second half; the spirit was clear, Irish pride permeated, and James Ryan, Timoney and Jack Crowley all added immense value to the almost solo effort of Beirne and Gibson-Park – taking the ball direct and straight into a French side that dropped off markedly after their raft of replacements really failed to add the required momentum.
But for France, the scary takeout is that they produced a performance like this with a lot of readjustments and without really getting out of third gear. This was a performance of promise, but if this side evolves as we saw tonight for the first 50 minutes, it may well become a benchmark season.
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