The French rugby team lost heavily to start its 2024 Six Nations Championship against Ireland in Marseille (17-38). A defeat that puts doubt from the outset against a team eliminated from its World Cup in the quarter-finals last October (28-29) by South Africa and which still had trauma.

If Andy Farrell’s men made their match, Fabien Galthié’s men were not up to the task.

A first half hour where the Irish dominated in the field occupation (James Lowe was decisive against Ramos in ping-pong rugby), in conquest (100% in touch and ammunition stolen from the French). Result: around the twentieth minute, Ireland had possession of the ball around 70% (maybe even more).

The Irish played their rugby, and took advantage of Paul Willemse’s yellow (almost red) to mark the first try of the match, build confidence, and take the opportunity later to register a second try by Tadgh Beirne (30th minute), which symbolized the absence of the Blues from the match and Irish mastery.

And then, Willemse’s red card at the return, and the match was folded.

If the French reacted just before the break with a nice try by Penaud, the damage was done and the tricolors ran after the score in the second half, at 14 against 15. Impossible to do anything.

It is therefore these first 30 minutes that are interesting to analyze, where the match was played.

We have already surprisingly seen a game at the foot of Maxime Lucu and Matthieu Jalibert failing, not as long as those of Lowe, Gibbson-Park or Crowley.

More worrying too, we saw an Irish team that could have scored more points during this period of domination. Two forgotten tries along the way, a missed Crowley penalty, and a little more the Irish put France back in the match themselves.

This reminds us of an opposite scenario that France is experiencing against its opponents: a thunderous start, an opponent underwater, overtaken for half an hour, which emerges before the break and at the resumption, then collapses definitively at the end of the game.

Then.

Should we worry about this match?

Passing by a match can happen. We still felt two relatively stressed teams at the beginning of the game, with Irish people who occupied the field better at the beginning of the game and who perfectly took advantage of Paul Willemse’s cards to kill the match.

The World Cup is still in the heads, and some players ran out of energy yesterday:

Willemse, Danty, Fickou, Lucu…

So to see against Scotland next Sunday if it was an accident or if it will be a trend.