France rain on Ireland's farewell parade in Tallaght

Republic of Ireland 0-3 France

France rained on the Republic of Ireland's farewell parade at Tallaght Stadium on Thursday night as they swept to a comprehensive 3-0 victory.

The Girls in Green will fly out to Australia for the World Cup tomorrow, and had hoped to depart on a high.

However, having initially acquitting themselves well, they were sucker-punched by three first-half setbacks.

First, Katie McCabe departed with an ankle injury on the half-hour mark; then Maelle Lakrar knocked home a calamitous 45th-minute opener after some pinball in the box; and Eugenie Le Sommer rubbed salt into the wounds with a well-taken second goal in stoppage time.

The 7,633 crowd were desperate for an Irish repsonse but it never really came, Lakrar nodding in a third goal in the 61st minute to completely kill the game as a contest.

On a disappointing night, the news that McCabe’s injury is not believed to be serious was the biggest positive.

France - ranked fifth in the world - will go into the tournament as one of the favourites, while Ireland head Down Under with a few things to iron out ahead of their huge group opener against Australia in Sydney on 20 July.

Pauw's preference of playing quality opposition as often as possible has served the well before; they'll hope some harsh lessons from tonight will ultimately benefit the mission to Oz.

Pauw went strong from the off as McCabe, Denise O'Sullivan and Sinead Farrelly all returned to the fold. Marissa Sheva got the nod to play off lone striker Kyra Carusa, while Megan Connolly dropped back to the heart of the defence alongside Louise Quinn and Niamh Fahey.

With a strong wind blowing down from the Dublin Mountains, Ireland started with purpose and aggression.

Payne’s crunching tackle earned