MUCH OF THE build-up in recent days centred on Joey Carbery, so the Ireland out-half must have been pleased with what he delivered on the big stage at Stade de France last night.
With captain Johnny Sexton missing, Carbery stepped up in the number 10 shirt for what was his first Six Nations start at the age of 26.
It has been a long time coming but the Munster playmaker looked very comfortable as Ireland came up short on a 30-24 scoreline, leaving with certain regrets but also having been encouraged by their second-half performance.
Carbery kicked superbly off the tee, nailing two touchline conversions from the left, while he had some lovely touches on the ball even when under pressure from the French linespeed.
He was relatively busy defensively too, completing 10 tackles for Ireland, and generally looked at home against what is a brilliant French side.
While the result left Ireland deeply disappointed, the performance from Carbery was among the positives. Sexton is set to return from his hamstring injury in time for Ireland’s next game against Italy, but Carbery put his hand up for another start in that fixture.
His head coach, Andy Farrell, was delighted with Carbery’s impact in Paris
“I thought he was excellent,” said Farrell. “Everyone was curious to see how Joey would go in his first start [in the Six Nations] but it didn’t surprise us.
“He was very confident and very assured in his performance and that’s only what we’ve seen over the last couple of weeks in training anyway.
“He was himself, he kicked beautifully for goal and I thought he controlled the game pretty well for us.”
It would have been fascinating to see what Ireland would have done with their 72nd-minute penalty had Sexton been on the pitch as captain.
James Ryan took on that leadership job in his absence. After conferring with the likes of Carbery and Iain Henderson, Ryan opted to go for the posts in that moment late on in the game, despite Ireland being six points behind France at the time.
Whatever about that incident, Farrell viewed this visit to Paris as a welcome step in developing the leadership within his squad.
Sexton travelled with them for the game – and was loudly booed by France supporters when he popped up on the big screen in the stadium at one stage – but Farrell was happy seeing others take on more responsibility.
“It’s a great opportunity for us to grow and for James to grow as captain in the heat of battle,” said Farrell. “You don’t get better Test matches than that. We’re going to learn and get better from that.
“I thought Joey was excellent. He was excellent because all the guys around him were pretty assured as well.”
Ireland now go into a break week but it will be fascinating to see how Farrell selects his matchday 23 for the Italy game in Dublin on Sunday 27 February.
There were a few injuries last night in Paris, with Rónan Kelleher’s the most concerning as he was forced off in the first half with what appeared to be an arm or shoulder issue. His replacement, Dan Sheehan, was excellent at hooker.
Peter O’Mahony didn’t return after leaving for a head injury assessment [HIA] shortly after he had come on as a substitute, although captain Ryan did get back on the pitch having left for a HIA just before half time.
Although they lost last night, Ireland are still in the hunt for a Six Nations title.
They will hope to see France slip up away to Scotland or Wales in the next two rounds, or at home against England on the final day. If les Bleus are beaten, Ireland come right back into contention and their losing bonus point last night could be valuable.
“The competition is obviously slightly in France’s favour,” said Farrell.
“Two home games that they’ve played and two victories for them but the competition is only just getting going so we’ll lick our wounds and learn from what was a fighting, spirited performance.
“At the same time, we’ll be honest with each other and make sure that we learn the lessons on a few decisions we made along the way.”
To come in cold and play pretty much 80 mins at the highest intensity is fair going. Really good game from Joey. Stood up really well in defence even though France were throwing a lot at him. Keep him there for the next game.
@Jim Demps: Agreed. Thought carbery had a very good game against a well oiled shaun Edwards defence, which is about as tough as it gets. Didn’t help that jgp wasn’t up to the high standards he set for himself over the last year.
The introduction of Murray made things even harder for the 10.
@whoowhat?: I thought Gibson park went well. He’s passing is pretty loose alright and his kicking isn’t the best but he does bring tempo and a threat around the fringes.
@Jim Demps: JGP had been worthy of his place but the tempo (which is great) does not hide the poor basics. Too often Players are either plucking passes out of the sky or off their toes. Murray is definitely not the answer. Since Cooney has offended Faz in a past life we should start Casey against Italy. He brings tempo and snipe like JGP but his service is much better. He’d be playing with his club 10 in Joey also. Have to start giving some guys game time in 6Ns
Why didn’t he kick for touch with the penalty at 72/73? That was madness! We weren’t playing for a draw so we still needed a try or else two more between the posts. Opportunity wasted.
@Daniel Murray: would we have won the lineout with Beirne’s 50:22 butchered earlier?
@Daniel Murray: because it was better to have the three guaranteed points from the kick and have smaller margin to gain then go for touch, get murdered by the French defence and possibly end up in a worse situation and deeper loss
@Sinead Merrigan: makes no sense. The kick left them 3 or 4 points behind, meaning they still needed a try to win. Fortune favours the brave, he who dares wins etc etc
@Daniel Murray: because that’s the captain’s decision? If Ryan said got for the posts, Carbery isn’t going to overrule him.
@Sinead Merrigan: It was absolutely the wrong call. 6 points down we need a try to win the game. Taking the 3 means we still need the try for the win so taking it makes no sense. Why sacrifice a prime attacking position to get the try we needed in favour 3 pts that change nothing and leave us having to work another try score opportunity when we have one right in front of is already
@Phil Redmond: exactly, made no sense.
@Daniel Murray: Because it was the Captain’s decision !!!
@Sean Walsh: nobody is disputing that
@Phil Redmond: In hindsight etc. Other times it worked.
@Paul Mcnevin: No not in hindsight. This is a decision the players should be able to see for themselves on the pitch. If you need and try and a penalty or if taking the 3 means the game can then be won with another penalty or a drop goal then it’s the right choice but with a 6 point gap a penalty is no use. You need a try. If you take the 3 you still have to work your way back down there all over again to score the try you could have potentially already scored instead of taking the penalty and now there is less time to do it in. With a 6 point gap, taking the penalty is always the wrong option there
@Daniel Murray: he fluffed it (Ryan), no other analysis needed. He will know himself and will be better for it. Apart from Henderson we dont have any other option for captain anyway. Having a 9 or 10 as captain is a disadvantage, its their job to pester the ref and chance their arms every opportunity they get. They cant try to milk penalties without compromising the integrity of their relationship with the ref. Front row is similar, they need to play the ref at scrum time (and only play part of the game). Back row need to be on the edge and 12 to 15 are too far away drom the breakdown. So… Either ryan or hendo and maybe pom id he plays because refa already know him. 11
Justice for Joey here. He was absolutely fine and can build on this. CM needs to speed up when we’re chasing the game. JGP is the best we’ve got. 2 minutes for Jack Carty was not right. I hope he’s better treated than John Cooney. Still, Joey has the 10 shirt and must crack on. Now or never.
@Michael Killian: you’d love to see him and Carty get a run of games. We need to get them more exposure ahead of RWC. We know what Sexton can do.
Penalty got losing bonus point
@Tony Mcgrath:
@Tony Mcgrath:
@Tony Mcgrath: for sure man, summed up perfectly!
@Tony Mcgrath: kicking to corner could have won us the match!
@Hotirish: and a try bonus point. Very frustrating but a lot of positives to take away from the game.
@Hotirish: no guarantee they’d have scored. They’d bottled lineout from same position a few mins before. Taking points gave them 8 mins to go back up the pitch and win. Don’t gamble on winning/losing a game when you’ve nearly ten mins left to play. Close the lead and give yourself another chance to win
@mcdb06: If we were 8-10 points behind I’d agree but not 6. The 3 points are usless cause with or without them we still need a try to win. Ireland are one of the top teams in the world. They should be backing their line out to function against anyone. They gave up a prime opportunity for a try in favour of 3 points that do nothing to change what they need. Just meant they had to work another chance instead of taking the one that was right in front of them
@Hotirish: and gotten us a try bonus point and if we lost it would have been losing BP and try BP.
James Ryan is not the first player that the captaincy does not suit. His own game suffers and he lacks authority during the game. Bad call taking the kick … we had them under pressure for a some minutes leading up to that. Also not substituting the 2 props until the 73rd minute was a bad call by the coach. We have possibly our best panel of players ever but I’m not convinced our head coach is at that level.
@JG: thought Ryan had a hell of a game. Almost back to his best. Agree the decision to go for the posts was the wrong one. At the time the French defense were standing off a little so though we could score a try from the lineout.
@Ro Molloy: he got absolutely bet up around the pitch. He is not physical enough against big packs. Beirne also not a big bruiser but he got on a lot better than Ryan did in contact. Against a pack as big as Frances we really need a bruiser like Kleyn. He may be limited when it comes to handling but he is a huge man and we need some bulk. Coombes in the back row would have helped also.
@Ro Molloy: Ryan is a very good player. Probably not the world beater we thought he’d be but a good one. Don’t think he should be captain as with Hendy fit I think Ryan’s not a guaranteed starter and his leadership skills don’t seem to guarantee his place. Beirne and Hendy are also more suited to the game we’re trying to play. Penalty decision gets worse and worse the more we think about it. Madness
@Ro Molloy: what… he had a shocker was invisible for most of the game and stat wise
@Ro Molloy: Ryan has a big heart and is good in the lineout but he’s our third best lock. Beirne is amazing at the breakdown and has super ball handling skills. Henderson has great foot work and hits the soft shoulder allowing him make extra yards and break the gain line. Both have everything Ryan has and more. Ryan runs straight into the tackler which isn’t good enough at the top level. If all three are fit Henderson and Beirne must play.
@guineon: just play the munster pack?
Personally I think Ireland are struggling in the 9 position…. JP??? We need someone with a great passing game but equally good of the boot when required.
Again personally I think Murray had both of those boxes ticked…. but along the way he has seemed to have lost the hunger of proving oneself…. When Murray was rated highly in the world as a top scrum half I think the stardom went straight to the head. He needs to get back to earth and re-invent himself… Casey ain’t the answer either… so where are Ireland wrt a scrum half. ?
@Denis O Sullivan: JGP brings a tempo to our game and allows for the 3 second rucks that teams struggle to defend against. The French did well to disrupt us there yesterday. As the laws have been tweaked, the Schmidt style of controlling possession doesn’t work any more. Murray thrived under that because his passing and kicking are excellent, but he can’t do it at a higher tempo. We have five Irish scrum halves who can play the high tempo style in Blade, Casey, Cooney, Doak and Marmion. All five are better passers and kickers than JGP but Farrell prioritises tempo and must think JGP has the edge there.
@Sustainable Hedgehog: You left out McGrath, possibly better than any of them. Doak, tho the real deal needs a bit more time. Murray, unless he reinvents himself, belongs to a different time. GP was poor v Wales and not much improved v France, to call a spade a spade.
Carbery needs more games he can only get better and better if he stays fit and playing and Hopefully the new Munster management will utilise his skills with the young 10s snapping at his heels to push him too
He stepped up to the mark brilliantly
Carbery had a good game I thought, all the more so considering it was his first start in any game for several months, and the fact that Gibson-Park is very out of sorts at the moment.
At the match, the decision to take the three points instead of kicking to the corner felt like the right option – the line out hadn’t been especially reliable, and there was still time to create another opportunity.
Against Italy, I would like to see Carbery start, and give Gibson-Park an opportunity to find some form
@Lesidees: find some form? He was excellent against Wales. Against France who put us under enormous pressure all game he wasn’t as good as previous games but he is still the best scrum half we have at the moment. Do you honestly think Murray or Casey would have done better?
@Ro Molloy: JGP was terrible in the first half against Wales. His errors yesterday contributed to France’s first two scores. His kicking was generally poor. If Ireland are going to revert to a kicking game, as in the first half yesterday, Murray is a better option.
If they are going to make a big success out of a high-tempo approach, either Gibson-Park needs to recover his form, or they need to find a better scrum half. Personally I think Marmion would be a better option in the short term
@Lesidees: +1
Super performance…
Why we decide to kick possession of the ball away with seconds remaining while trailing a score is an absolute mind boggling brain fart of a mystery.
Carbery is a great kicker, but he offered almost nothing in the whole game, never attacked the line I felt and didn’t kick well out of hand. Carty got 90 seconds threw one speculative pass that wasn’t even called as forward by anyone other than commentary and Sheehan absolutely should have held onto and Carty’s apparently after showing he’s not up to it. Compare Carbery to Smith, both of whom are supposed to be the young and up and coming 10′s, Carbery creates very little. How people can say he was excellent, and the JGP was the actual issue, Park made one or two errors but actually did some really positive things in open play too, I thought Carbery was super conservative and didn’t anything but stake his claim to the Ireland 10 jersey, I thought he was average as all hell.
In 2018 Carberry looked like a world beater winning a Heineken Cup (even if he didn’t play in the final) and playing for Ireland and to think he’s only making a 6 Nations debut now at 26 in 2022 is disappointing.
I doubt Sexton would’ve won that game but the drop off between him and Sexton who is 10 years older than him at this point is concerning. Hopefully, the IRFU manage the new FHs coming through better, I would like to see them drop Carberry completely for Italy and see what Crowley or Healy could do.