Wow. That ticked a lot of boxes.Home win, bonus point, seeing out the game minus a host of experienced players, landing a psychological blow on France in World Cup year.
Check, check, check, check.It couldn't have gone much better. Perfect game, right, Johnny?"Well, straight away, in term of the chances that we created," the skipper said after the match, not missing a beat in reply to the suggestion that they could do no more."At half-time we spoke about how we had a 50% success rate in how close we were to their line and not scoring.
There were chances to get the ball into space earlier and we didn’t."Look, there’s plenty to work on. There always is."Andy Farrell: We won a titanic game and I'm immensely proud of the lads #IREvFRA #SixNations pic.twitter.com/7nQdYJpPs5But head coach Andy Farrell, who loves to see his side rise to the various challenges, the tougher the better in his mind, cut an extremely satisfied customer when he appeared in the press conference alongside the out-half a good hour after the final whistle of the 32-19 victory, in which they conceded eight penalties to France's seven.A side note about the World Rugby rankings, where Ireland remain top.
It just presents another challenge to be met."Well we have been asked for a couple of months now and we have not shied away from the fact it is just about us and how we can improve on our game and embracing the fact there is kind of a bigger target on our back," said Farrell, whose side enjoyed 54% possession and 64% territory."And that can only be good for us because there are a lot of types of different situations we can put ourselves in especially when the opposition is going to be a step up above, to normality."It is a great place for us to be, to test