Ireland coach Easterby questions second France try

BBC News

08-03-2025

Ireland interim boss Simon Easterby questioned the awarding of France's second try while lamenting his side's wasteful display in Saturday's Six Nations defeat in Dublin. France moved two points clear at the top of the table before next week's final round of fixtures with a ruthless 42-27 victory over the holders. The second France try - scored by Paul Boudehent - put the visitors 15-13 ahead after Dan Sheehan's score early in the second half briefly gave Ireland the lead.Ireland were angered that Boudehent's try was allowed to stand by referee Angus Gardner after Thibaud Flament cleared Peter O'Mahony out of a ruck in the build-up. "We didn't defend well enough in our 22 but there are certain things that happen in a game, in instances like that, which are going to prevent someone [O'Mahony in this case] making a tackle, or be in a position to try and stop that," said Easterby."All teams try and create a bit of space through the ruck and that allows the next player to pick, but it's the judgement over whether that contact on Pete [was] close enough to the ruck to know if it was legal."It was three or four metres from the ruck, so that's something we'll reflect on and feed back to Angus Gardner and his assistant referees. Obviously the TMO also came in and felt it was legal."
With a mix of power and counter-attacking speed, France blew Ireland away in the second half, scoring 34 unanswered points to avenge last year's 38-17 loss in Marseille. And while Easterby conceded the French are a "hard team to stop when they have momentum", he bemoaned Ireland's inability to turn pressure into points when they had possession inside France's 22."We certainly felt we didn't take our opportunities or put them under enough pressure," said Easterby. "When we did it wasn't until the last 10 minutes of the game when we could score a decent number of points. But the game was gone."Easterby, who suffered the first defeat of his interim spell, added: "We felt that going in at 8-6 down at half-time we were still well in the game. "We were confident if we started well, which we did, that we could kick on and make them pay in terms of our fitness and our ability to go well in second halves, which we have done in previous games in the tournament. "Unfortunately, we didn't take enough of opportunities in the game in their 22 and we also conceded too easily."
Ireland captain Caelan Doris, who was denied an early try when he was held up by Gregory Alldritt, rued his side's ill-discipline with Joe McCarthy and Calvin Nash both sin-binned. "We thought we were in contention at half-time, we felt confident," said Doris, who was making his 50th cap. "We started well and thought we could go on to do it but that 25-minute period in the middle of the second half was where we just weren't good enough - our collisions, our discipline."They can create something from nothing with go forward ball, and that's what happened two or three times in a row."