Here is a report on the “other” rugby match taking place in Dublin last weekend. It wasn’t in Croke Park, and although the French won, it wasn’t anyway near as devastating. Read on…
At St Mary’s Rugby club in Dublin last Saturday where Ireland’s rugby women were taking on France, you could have been forgiven for thinking that you had fetched up somewhere just outside Toulouse.
Taking up position beside the pitch before the match, “les gars”, dressed in berets and scarves, were enjoying a “pique-nique” of wine, bread and pate.
In the packed stand, fans of the French team cheekily sang “Nous sommes chez nous ici (We’re at home here)”. They weren’t far wrong – they far outnumbered the local supporters.
So the omens weren’t good, especially when you recalled that the last time these sides met, the score had been 43-10 in favour of “les bleus”.
Ninety minutes later, we dragged ourselves home after a truly enthralling match. That the script had been thrown away became glaringly obvious when the French were repulsed again and again by ferocious Irish tackling. Then, miracle of miracles, after a scrum well inside her own half, Ireland’s Jeanette Feighery slipped through the French defence and made it all the way to the line. After just 12 minutes, Ireland were ahead.
The first half continued with the French unable to break through, although most of the play was in the Irish half. Only in the dying minutes did Christelle Le Duff slot over a penalty to bring the French within two points of the home side.
Come the second half and again the French were slipping and sliding in the difficult conditions. The Irish were pushed back but always managed to get the kick away.
It took until the 66th minute before substitute Melanie Gorvenet finally put the French in front. But in true fairy tale fashion, Irish No 1, Fiona Coughlan came back immediately with a try. Ireland were still ahead 10-8.
By now the match had turned into an epic. If the Irish women could hold out for the final ten minutes, the match could be put up there with the great ones (dare we mention Munster v the All Blacks?) .
Unfortunately, France’s Le Duff did the damage again, crashing crashed over the line in the 33rd minute to make the score 10-13 and although Ireland pushed hard in the dying minutes, they couldn’t get the points they needed.
Still there wasn’t the same sense of shock that was to come at Croke Park a day later. It had been a great game and neither side deserved to lose. As they left the field, looking like extras from a mud wrestling movie, both teams got a standing ovation. They thoroughly deserved it.
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