Matt Williams: Weakest Irish side in a long time needed ‘divine intervention’ to beat France
Matthieu Jalibert after scoring for France against Ireland and an inset of Matt Williams.
Matt Williams has reacted to Ireland’s defeat to France in their Six Nations opener, stating that Andy Farrell’s men needed “divine intervention” to stand a chance.
Ireland were completely dominated in the opening knockings of the match with Louis Bielle-Biarrey, Matthieu Jalibert and Charles Ollivon grabbing first-half tries with Thomas Ramos adding eight points from the tee.
The 22-0 half-time scoreline meant that for the first time since the 2020 clash with England at Twickenham, Ireland were pointless in the first 40 minutes of a Test match.
Lengthy injury list
Farrell’s charges did put up a better fight in the second half thanks largely to the impact from the bench with replacement forwards Nick Timoney and Michael Milne scoring, but by that stage the damage had already been done.
Ireland entered the opening game of the championship with a lengthy injury list that included British and Irish Lions Andrew Porter, Tadhg Furlong, and Mack Hansen. Meanwhile, Bundee Aki is in the dock serving a ban, James Lowe was omitted from the matchday 23, while props Paddy McCarthy and Jack Boyle added to the team’s front-row woes.
Ryan Baird, Robbie Henshaw, Tom Ahern, Calvin Nash, Jimmy O’Brien and Hugo Keenan were the other names on the longlist of unavailable players.
While France had setbacks of their own with multiple scrum-halves sidelined, Romain Ntamack injured, and Uini Atonio’s retirement after a heart-attack, to name just a few.
Reacting to Ireland’s defeat on Off the Ball, Williams said that the team that Farrell selected was one of the weakest Ireland sides he has seen in a long while because of the injuries.
“That is the weakest Irish side I’ve seen in many years, with so many injuries,” he remarked.
“There’s probably seven or eight guys that don’t make it in a full Irish Test team.”
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Sensational France, poor Ireland
Still, he praised the performance of Les Bleus, who outplayed their visitors. He added that fans and pundits were hopeful that Ireland could get a result in Paris but that isn’t a strong tactic.
“I’ve got to say, France just played absolutely sensational rugby,” he continued.
“Ireland was out-thought, out-executed, their defence was poor. France were unbelievably good, but that is such a weakened Irish side. You know, everyone was hoping, hope is not a strategy.
“That Irish side was, as I said, they needed some divine intervention, and it wasn’t there in Paris on a Thursday night.”
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Ireland now dust themselves off as focus turns to round two of the Six Nations, which entails a trip to Rome, where they will face Italy before completing the first leg of the competition at Allianz Stadium, Twickenham against England.
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