6N: France hold out Ireland to end 10-year drought in Dublin

DUBLIN (AP) — France maintained a perfect start to the Six Nations by beating Ireland 15-13 on Sunday at Lansdowne Road for the first time in 10 years.

A second win from two matches moved France to the top of the table, ahead of the only other unbeaten side, Wales, on points difference.

Meanwhile, the Irish lost their opening two games for the first time since 1998 and are consigned to playing for third place for a third straight year.

France weathered a storming start from Ireland and went ahead with the opening try to captain Charles Ollivon while teammate Bernard Le Roux was in the sin-bin.

Their second well-worked try to wing Damian Penaud extended the lead to 15-3 nearly an hour in.

In what has been a tough place for France to win, it took both of its try chances, and in a superb display of game management the defense did the rest.

They corralled the deep-passing Irish, who struggled to get over the gainline. The one try France conceded was a solo opportunist score by hooker Ronan Kelleher. Goalkicks by Ross Byrne closed the gap to two points but Ireland never looked like bridging that over the last 16 minutes. The game finished when Ireland, after 16 phases, was turned over on halfway by Antoine Dupont.

The drama was heightened by Ireland having a try disallowed and France flyhalf Matthieu Jalibert missing three of his five goalkicks.

The Irish enjoyed the early running on a wet field. Billy Burns, in for the injured Jonathan Sexton, was directing his kicks well and France was under set-piece pressure. Burns shanked his first goalkick badly, reviving memories of his missed touch-finder that ended the loss to Wales in round one, but only three minutes later he received a second regulation goalkick and nailed it.

Le Roux then was sin-binned for tripping Keith Earls, and his absence was exploited at the next lineout by Ireland. Robbie Henshaw, Burns and fullback Hugo Keenan set up wing James Lowe to crash over in the left corner. But the try was ruled out as France fullback Brice Dulin’s tackle was enough to knock Lowe’s foot into touch.

France, a man down, then showed marvellous maturity by playing the match in Ireland’s half.

Against the run of play, France used its first good lineout ball to score. Offloads by Jalibert, Dupont and Gael Fickou gave Ollivon a clean run to the line.

Jalibert converted and added a penalty for 10-3 as Ireland’s possession dried up in the second quarter.

In an eventful 42nd minute, Dupont gave hooker Julien Marchand a burst to the tryline, but Dupont’s out-pass was accidentally headed away.

But Burns, after a tidy first Six Nations start, was forced off by a head knock after tackling Gregory Alldritt and replaced by Byrne, and captain Iain Henderson and prop Cian Healy clashed heads and were forced to the blood bin.

France was in the ascendency. From scrum ball, Jalibert switched direction, found Dulin free, and the tracking Penaud touched down in the right corner.

Kelleher’s first act as replacement Ireland hooker was a throw-in — cut off by Ollivon. But the tap down bounced kindly for Kelleher who hared to the tryline.

Byrne converted Kelleher’s first test try and added a 40-meter penalty but Ireland couldn’t close the gap. They harmed their own cause with 16 handling errors.

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