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Ireland's Conor Murray after the match. INPHO/Billy Stickland

Kidney fails to take the positives out of Ireland's defeat to France

Ireland coach Declan Kidney felt that a good second half performance was not enough from his side against France, and wants to see more consistency.

TAKING A LESSON from the Roy Keane school of misery, Ireland coach Declan Kidney refused to see the positives in Ireland’s second half performance in the 19-12 defeat to France on Saturday.

Les Bleus were quite brilliant in the first half, Vincent Clerc’s try capping off some outstanding rugby as the home side raced into a 13-0 lead at the break.

However, a Ronan O’Gara-inspired fightback from the Irish had the French rattled and the match could have finished in a draw had Keith Earls’ late sprint towards the line not fallen just short.

“I’d hate to go back into the past and say that I’m glad we had a really good second half,” Kidney told RTE Sport.

“That’s the sort of thing we would have said in the past. We lost the game and that’s what we need to look at it.

“In the first half we did a bit of damage to ourselves because we didn’t hang on to the ball too well.”

For more on this story, check out the RTE website >

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