LAST UPDATE | 9 Jun

IRELAND MEN HAD to settle for second place as France took the honours in the first leg of the Rugby Sevens Europe Championship.

After earlier booking their place in the final with an emphatic 31-7 win over Germany, Sam Myers’ side lost 12-7 to Les Bleus in a tense decider in Makarska, Croatia. 

Enahemo Artaud’s first-half double proved to be decisive for the French, as a dogged defensive effort shut out Ireland’s best efforts in the second half.

Artaud had France on the board in the opening minute, diving over to score in the corner after Diego Miranda had skipped around Josh Costello’s tackle.

But Ireland struck back after a patient passage of build-up play, Connor O’Sullivan darting up the middle to touch down under the posts, leaving Ed Kelly with the simplest of conversions for a 7-5 lead.

Ireland only had themselves to blame for Arnaud’s second try as Miranda was the creator once again, his jinking footwork leaving Irish tacklers in his wake before Arnaud supplied the one-handed finish, converted for a 12-7 lead.

It could have been worse for Ireland, but for a thumping tackle from Nick Greene on Simon Desert to force a knock-on with the final play of the half.

And France squandered another golden opportunity midway through the second half when Ali Dabo seemingly had the line at his mercy but chose instead to cut back inside Andrew Smith, allowing the Connacht man to make a brilliant try-saving tackle.

Dabo certainly made amends in the closing stages, stealing two lineouts from Matt McDonald to stall the Irish momentum.

A French knock-on with just 25 seconds left gave Ireland the ball back for one last play, but a promising break from Hugo Keenan was snuffed out, and Ireland were driven back over their own line to end the game.

Earlier in Sunday’s semi-finals, tries from Greene, Bryan Mollen, O’Sullivan, Hugo Lennox and Costello sealed an impressive 31-7 win over Germany.

Ireland hit the front within three minutes when Keenan found Greene on his shoulder, the Garryowen man breaking through the German tackle to score.

Irish skipper Mollen was dominant at the breakdown, and he started and finished the move that led to Ireland’s second try, forcing the initial turnover penalty and then powering over from close range after Keenan was stopped just short.

Lennox converted for a 12-0 lead, and then pulled the strings for Ireland’s third on the stroke of half time, floating a beautiful pass for O’Sullivan to score in the corner, Lennox adding a tricky conversion to send Ireland in at the break 19-0 up.

Makonnen Amekuedi gave Germany a lifeline early in the second half with a brilliant turn of pace, cutting the deficit to 19-7.

But Ireland quickly resumed their dominance, Lennox running in unopposed from 80 metres after some superb Irish counter-rucking forced the ball loose, before Costello wriggled free of Niklas Koch’s tackle to run in Ireland’s fifth under the posts.

Meanwhile, Ireland Women finished in eighth place after losing to both Czechia (10-5) and Great Britain (19-0) in the fifth-to-eighth place rankings playoffs.