A RAMPANT France dashed Ireland's Six Nations Grand Slam hopes on Saturday with a 42-27 victory at the Aviva Stadium.
The defeat also dealt a critical blow to Ireland's hopes of a historic third consecutive title, with France firmly in pole position ahead of their final game at home Scotland.
On a day of disappoint for Simon Easterby's side, it also meant there was no victorious ending for Peter O'Mahony, Conor Murray and Cian Healy, playing their final home game for Ireland.
"I don't think it's how we envisioned the weekend going, a special day for the three lads, a special day for the 50th cappers," said Caelan Doris in the post-match press conference, one of the players making his 50th appearance.
Dan Sheehan scores Ireland’s first try (Image: Charles McQuillan / Getty Images)"We wanted our best performance of the campaign today with the added incentive of that and finishing on a high for those lads at home in front of a full-on crowd.
"It's gutting in there, we were handed out our 50th caps, the lads were given a little presentation but it's not a happy changing room.
"With one more week to go, we're still chasing down our best performance and wanting to finish on a high ourselves personally as a team, regardless of how the table's shaping up.
"We still want to get our best performance out there and finish on a high for the lads and for the team as a whole."
Early dominance
Ireland started the brighter, seemingly unaffected by the loss of Jamie Lowe in the warm-up, but despite winning a succession of penalties they failed to make their dominance count.
Sam Prendergast opted to try for three points after nine minutes but saw his effort strike the upright.
Ireland continued to dominate but were given a scare when France broke away on 14 minutes, only for Antoine Dupont's try to be brought back for a knock-on in the build-up.
However, the French capitalised when Joe McCarthy was shown a yellow card after pulling back Thomas Ramos as he made a break for the try line.
Cian Healy scored on his last home appearance for Ireland (Image: Charles McQuillan / Getty Images)From the line-out, the ball was worked to Louis Bielle-Biarrey, who went over for the opening try of the game.
Ramos failed to add the extras and the loss of the talismanic Dupont coupled with the return of McCarthy looked to have handed the momentum back to Ireland.
The home side finally got points on the board as Prendergast converted after Paul Boudehent tackled Irish lock Tadhg Beirne off the ball.
Almost immediately, however, France restored their five-point advantage as Ramos converted after Andrew Porter obstructed Damian Penaud.
Prendergast managed to keep the pressure on the visitors though as he converted a long-range penalty with the last kick of the half.
French tide
With Ireland having twice come from behind at half-time in this year's Championship, a similar reaction was anticipated again after the break.
Indeed, Dan Sheehan put the hosts ahead as he broke off the back of the maul before going over and Prendergast's conversion put Ireland 13-8 in front.
However, it lasted just minutes as Paul Boudehent scored a controversial try for France, with Ireland feeling O'Mahony was taken out beyond the ruck by Thibaud Flament.
Not only did the try stand, but Ireland were also reduced to 14 men as Calvin Nash saw yellow for a head-on-head tackle on Pierre-Louis Barassi.
Jack Conan ‘s try on his 50th appearance was scant consolation for Ireland (Image: Brendan Moran / Sportsfile via Getty Images)Ramos converted to make it make it 15-13 and France made their numerical advantage count as they turned Ireland over in their own half minutes later.
Bielle-Biarrey raced down the left before touching down his own grubber, Ramos converting before adding another penalty to make it 25-13 after 55 minutes.
Despite the return of Nash, the full complement could not halt the French tide.
Oscar Jegou powered over for his first try to secure France a bonus point, Ramos adding the extras before converting a penalty after Ireland failed to release at the ruck.
From being five points ahead after 43 minutes, Ireland trailed 35-13 after 66 minutes.
Silver lining
Murray and Healy entered the fray for their last home appearances but there was no fairy tale ending.
With Flament sin-binned and Ireland pressing for a try, Ramos intercepted a Prendergast pass on the visitors' 5m line.
He raced clear before offloading to Penaud, who powered up the pitch for France's fifth, Ramos converting for an eye-watering 29-point lead, 42-13.
There was some silver lining for the hosts as Healy drove over for a try on 77 minutes in his final home appearance, with Jack Conan also going over minutes later on his 50th appearance.
Conor Murray, Cian Healy and Peter O'Mahony pictured ahead of their final home match for Ireland (Image: David Fitzgerald / Sportsfile via Getty Images)Prendergast converted both to make the score line somewhat respectable, 42-27, but it was late, scant consolation on a day that promised so much for Ireland.
That was a view echoed by Easterby in his post-match press conference,
"We certainly felt like we didn't take our opportunities," he said.
"We didn't put them under enough pressure and when we did, it wasn't until the last 10 minutes of the game where we showed we could score a decent number of points, but the game was gone by then."
He added: "They're a hard team to stop when they get momentum, they're as good as anyone when they get behind you and get on the front foot.
"It's a large part down to some of the collisions that we weren't able to put in place ourselves but credit to the way they try to play the game as well."
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