France hold off spirited Ireland fightback to win Six Nations thriller

It was awfully quiet in the Stade de France around 6.30, the rapt crowd of 80,000 too nervous to sing or scream or shout any more, for a game they thought they had seen their team win once, twice, three times already.

Ireland never held the lead, but they never stopped chasing it either. At that point, Joey Carbery had just kicked a penalty to cut three out of France’s six-point lead.

They were trailing 27-24 with five or so minutes left to play and everyone was wondering whether there was one twist left in a match that had been dizzyingly full of them. Then, inevitably, one, two, 20, 30, 40 and who knows how many thousand launched into La Marseillaise.

Down on the pitch, Gaël Fickou, launched a chip over the Ireland line, raced through, gathered it in one-handed. France were pouring forward again, into the Irish 22. The move stopped short of the try-line. It was worked wide to Melvyn Jaminet, who cut through on the angle, and over the line, trailing Dan Sheehan after him like he was a scarf in the wind.

Jaminet thought he had scored. So did everyone else. But the referee, Angus Gardner, called for the TMO, who ruled the ball had been held up after all. But Ireland had conceded a penalty somewhere in all the chaos. Jaminet kicked it.

It had always promised to be one of the great games of the Six Nations. And it was, not least because, way back at the start of the match, it looked like it was going to be a blow-out. The late kick-off meant the smattering of Ireland fans in the ground had the best part of the day to enjoy Paris, it took just over a minute for them to start sobering up.

It started going wrong when Jamieson Gibson-Park hoofed a loose box-kick straight into touch, and continued when Ireland were caught