Dubai: At first glance, double Six Nations champions Ireland look likely to walk Pool D having beaten France 18-11 at home in February’s tournament.
But the French, who have reached six out of seven World Cup semi-finals only to never finish better than runners-up (in 1987, 1999 and 2011), are a force to be reckoned with.
Philippe Saint-Andre’s side launch-ed a resurgence in the World Cup warm-ups, recovering from an initial 19-14 defeat to England to avenge the World Cup hosts with a 25-20 win before beating Scotland 19-16.
Those performances have prompted the world No. 7-ranked Les Bleus to be tipped as dark horses for the tournament, ending their bridesmaid status once and for all. And that’s enough reason for sixth-ranked Ireland, who have consistently hit a brick wall in World Cups, reaching the quarter-finals on five occasions, to be wary of their October 11 showdown with the French.
Whoever wins that match will likely top the group and theoretically avoid a quarter-final clash with New Zealand. France have a solid record over the Kiwis, having knocked them out in the semi-finals in 1999 and the quarter-finals in 2007, whereas Ireland have never beaten the All Blacks and won’t fancy their chances even with Kiwi coach Joe Schmidt on their side.
Despite France’s penchant for upsetting New Zealand, Saint-Andre is leaving nothing to chance and targets topping Pool D for a far more preferable next round clash with Argentina.
“It’s true that New Zealand don’t like playing France in the World Cup, but we are sticking to our goal of finishing first in the group by beating Italy, Romania, Canada and above all Ireland, so that we play Argentina afterwards,” he said.
Ireland will obviously have the same intention, but former fly-half Ronan O’Gara is warning the Shamrocks to drop their post-Six Nations winning bravado, especially in light of warm up defeats to England 21-13 and Wales 16-10, after having earlier beaten Wales 35-21 and Scotland 28-22.
“People presume Ireland are going to beat France. I think that’s a very dangerous presumption,” he said.
“France have the history, France have the capabilities because they are some unbelievable specimens.
“I think their Achilles heel is they have some great individual ability but I don’t think they can collectively put it together to threaten Ireland in terms of beating them, I hope.
Building blocks
“If Ireland show up [like] the last two, three times they played France, I think Ireland will be collectively better than them. Both teams know that the loser faces the All Blacks and it’s not the ideal route you want to take if you want to win a World Cup.”
In terms of actually going on to win their first tournament, O’Gara said Ireland, who are deemed a good left of centre bet, had certainly served their notice.
“The next step for Irish rugby is glory at the world stage — we’ve done the building blocks, we’ve done the European Cups, done the Six Nations, done the Grand Slam. Now the next step is on the world stage.”
Other teams in the pool offer a limited threat, with only Canada having got out of a group scenario once in 1991. The Maple Leafs are now ranked 18th in the world, however, lower than both Italy (14) and Romania (17).
Despite that, Schmidt insists Ireland will be on guard when they open against the Canucks on September 19.
“I know that people probably won’t see them in the same light, but I think they are an incredible banana skin for us,” he said.
“And you don’t have to look back too far to 2007 to see assumptions can undo teams very, very quickly,” he added in reference to Ireland’s only failure to get out of the group eight years ago, when both Argentina and France got the better of them.
“We’re not assuming anything other than Canada will be right up for the game,” he added.
