The Left Wing: A record-breaking night in Marseille – the post-match reaction & analysis

Ireland produced their best ever victory in France with a stunning 38-17 win over Les Bleus in the opening game of the 2024 Six Nations in Marseille.

Andy Farrell’s team scored five tries with Joe McCarthy producing a man of the match performance.

Rúaidhrí O’Connor and Cian Tracey joined Sinéad Kissane after the game at the Stade Velodrome to reflect on one of the all-time great Six Nations displays from an Irish team.

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Well hello and welcome to the left wing from inside the stad vome in Marse well who saw that coming uh you you tipped Ireland the fairness one score line uh wrong bus yeah I was had a few shaky WS though earlier today I was kind of thinking oh I do not know I

Should be more realistic bu yeah I don’t know the kind of blind Fai there was still feel surreal doesn’t it I mean just the whole night was a bit strange I found I know I said beforehand like the atmosphere did live up to um the expectation and and the like I’ve never

Heard of mercz was such G really special but I I you know I don’t want to start off with this necessarily but I thought France were ridiculously flat for a team who just been through that experience like surely if you were ever going to be

Fired up for a game it was after that and Ireland like it was like the World Cup was just a bu up in the road you know look something they didn’t really you know didn’t knock a soer you know we’ve talked to all them we know how

They talked about having PTSD last week but at the same time they they turn up they were accurate the you know the changes in Personnel didn’t bother them um you know they were back the Irish line out as well their line out was very good they yeah they fixed the things

That had gone wrong now France didn’t contest particularly well but it was a it was a really complete Ireland performance in keeping with it was more like the 17 RS in a row then maybe what went wrong in the in the the one defeat in that cycle which obviously the b in

The most important game but um I think you know it just showed that this Irish team they they’ve been knocked for six by that World Cup but they’ve bounced back very strongly and you know they should go on a win a grand slam now because that was the most difficult G

Fixture on the agenda and and what an impressive way to come to France score five tries record win um all be against 14 men but that was a self- conflicted win what what a stupid red card well should he even have come back on the first time do you think I thought there

Was enough moving Parts in the first one to make it a yellow yeah I thought um but like to to get you know it just CH is like we watch Irish teams all the time by and large Irish teams have kind of cut out those High tackles but and

And France are fairy squeak you C te most of the time but for FM who’s an enormous man to be tackling that high like the impact he would have had on on Andrew Porter and kayin Doris in both those moments was was profound you know I mean I thought Porter looked very

Shaken I’m surprised he came back after his hia um and it was but it was such a a silly thing for an experienced player to do and put his team on the back foot and as what they’ve got jome gares in the background we just saw him there as

We were in the mix zone so clearly you know they got him in a few years ago to focus on the discipline and the breakdown and things like that but yeah you’re right R it was self-inflicted and the fact that he he did almost the same thing twice just begged belief really

But you know obviously it was a factor in I suppose the size of the score line but I still wouldn’t take anything away not saying that you are at all but I wouldn’t take anything away from that Irish performance I think it showed it showed how well of how much of an well

Oil machine I think Ireland is at the moment like so so many question marks about how what would they be like without Johnny SE and how would the attack flow it wasn’t perfect but well what a statement I would say from from Jack Crowley um there was always going

To be errors he had a couple of Errors you know a couple of decisions I’m sure he’d probably take of those conversions conversions but it it’s his mental strength not to deviate from his own game plan I thought the his scanning for TIG Burns Troy was exceptional you can

See it on the replay that he spots moaka um in the line and you can see him calling to TIG bur just a couple of seconds before he plays the pass and how well Ireland’s tack flowed I thought the quality of the TR that they scored was seriously seriously good and that’s a

Massive feather in the cap for the coaches I think as well as the players because like I said to do without Johnny SE and to do without M Hansen who is so important to this um Irish attack but calvan as just slotted seamlessly um into the system what a way to mark his

Six Nation St debut with a Troy and then you have Big Joe McCarthy um living up to the billing I mean I was thinking this morning about him I was thinking I know he’s ready for the Six Nations is the Six Nations ready for him he was

Immens I mean if he hadn’t announced his arrival already like that this very much was my favorite part though was the way he kind of showed off his mullish when he was looked like he got a fresh Tri as well he had he had his championship haircut and he brought his championship

Game and you know maybe people in France weren’t fully aware of Joe McCarthy before tonight well they are now I know you’ve been consistently saying this Ro over the last while that he’s going to become the Cornerstone of the Irish pack and you can see why he is um just

Immense like you said chenade the line out was so much better um Dan Sheen and to burn calling it he doesn’t obviously always do it’s usually James Ryan’s um responsibility but you see how important the line out is to Ireland’s functioning you know and when that goes well

Everything kind of hums off it so um it was just so impressive from start to finish I thought it was so impressive they had to ride couple of storms as well but the mental strength they showed uh was remarkable I think we’ll really stand to them over the next few weeks as

Well yeah and I think like that goes back to Crowley and and you touched on it there and it was what Andy Farrell put he Praise on him for was that he wasn’t perfect and Johnny seon wasn’t perfect you know Rara you had games where things went went away from him

What Crowley at the age of 24 was able to do um was to park those moments and to to focus and they talk about us all the time being next moment focus and it sounds like a bit of a mantra or cliche but you can see it in action tonight he

Misses a kick from the front of the post that he’s been kicking in his sleep since he was under 12 in manry getting medals off um or Bandon getting medals off Peter ammani and he misses a kick in the biggest game of his life and most players like you most normal people

Would be completely shaken by that but I get the ball back and he just runs tense incredibly accurate phases and that moment that Keane talked about and I thought that showed a player who’s ready for this level of a player who’s who’s going to make mistakes like he’s going

To kick the ball dead he’s going to you know they all make mistakes you know we we we we could shouldn’t expect superhuman things from them but but all you can do is learn from those mistakes Park them and move on and I thought he did that very impressively tonight and I

Thought Arland learned from the the mistakes of the of the past and like burn was a very interesting selection because Peter sorry um Ian Henderson called the line out against uh New Zealand and and against Scotland and James Ryan would have done it previously but they backed Tye burn who’s been

Involved in in a bit of a gruer of a season for Monster he’s playing loads of minutes hasn’t always come he’s very good in to long a couple weeks ago but form he kind of admitted himself during the week that his form dipped a little bit the responsibility captaincy and my

God that he looked like he was delighted to be back in GRE say he was a freak of a player or something like that he’s a hell of a rby player he is and the way he charged down luk I mean they got in lcu’s head they just got in his space

They just made his life miserable you know who would told Anton Dupont would be Miss just I didn’t think they miss him that much but they did and they just were smarter than France tonight like they they had a really good game plan they kicked the ball I thought they

Stayed patient with the kicking game they used James slow boot absolutely I’ve never seen it used as as much yeah absolutely the thing about I like about Crowley as well is the fact that he brought his own personality to the game he didn’t come in and try and be Johnny

Seon he one of his early kicks he got charged down by Gregory Audrey but it didn’t stop him from trying a few different things with his kicking game didn’t always go according to plan but to not Retreat into your shell in that kind of environment is just so

Impressive from a 24y old who like let’s face it we all thought he would be ready for this kind of stage but he had to step up and prove it you know he’s had a couple of tough moments with monster H over the course of the season but that

Was a real statement that you know a lot of people I think would be concerned you know naturally like life after Johnny seon but the future is bright I think you know not not to get carried away but that is a big responsibility on a 24 yearold to come in and replace arguably

The greatest fair that the country has ever produced and he did it so well yeah he did and um well afterwards Andy far just spoke about the composure that that the team showed but he also had the these words to say about Jack Rowley there’s no doubt that uh a young kid who

Um playing in in in a position like Jack is 10 with the responsibility of that but then obviously all week um I’m rightly so if wants talking about how we going to deal with um not not having Johnny at the elm Etc and Jack’s going

To be the one that that as the first shot of filling the shoes it definitely Creeps in I mean everyone you’d be a liar if if you say he didn’t but um he he gains his strength from from um knowing that his teammates are prepared and and there to help and

And um I thought his composure of the line was great uh uh he made some really nice decisions and some poor ones at that um as well and he’ll know that more than more than anyone else uh I thought I mean the strength of character in regarding his his goal kicking when he

Missed the one in front allbe it uh from a a longer distance but then to uh knock them over from from from the sideline to on the trout from the sideline was sh’s immense character really so um it’s a good start for him it’s a it’s a good

Start it’s a good start for us as a team and uh hopefully we he’ll get better we’ll benefit from that as well we were talking yesterday just about that this would be real again of Andy far the manager my God it’s very impressive what what he does the way he speaks about the

Team how aligned what he speaks about is with what the players do on the pitch you know I mean sometimes matches up yeah it really is and it’s um it’s unusual because like sometimes he’s not the most effusive talker sometimes his press conferences are a little bit

Frustrating that he doesn’t go into huge detail about certain elements but what he does go into detail about his team back up on the pitch and you know he talks you know last year was all about adversity I think the psychological element he he and Gary Keegan have invested

Heavily in that side of things and um you can see the belief that this team has like we saw what effect the World Cup was had on our French team there were a bit of a rabble tonight like GTI was soly abdicated responsibility after game he wouldn’t really analyze the game

He wouldn’t talk about it which I thought was really weak and they embodied a World Cup hangover I thought they looked they looked really still shaken by that and look I mean arish supporters were obviously gutted with how the World Cup played out but it was far worse for France considering

Everything that they invested into home World Cup and you could see that it’s still lingering they looked rattled and they looked I mean it was a far worse performance than they delivered in their world cup quarterfinal it was nowhere near the level that they were at whereas

Ireland like to go away you know the provinces haven’t been going great laner are being a bit clunky they’re trying to learn a new defensive system monsters squeak through in Europe I mean there’s no Wier players in the team that they’ve been so bad and a couple of conic

Players who haven’t you know I don’t think um Bundy yaki’s been as good as the World Cup Bund Yaki but then here he is again tonight so farl took them off to Portugal and has just found been able to just find this this kind of it’s

Almost like Warren gin used to do for Wales he’s like whatever you’ve done your provinces doesn’t really matter that much but I’m going to I’m going to harness what you’re doing here and even the bench that he picked brought them all on at once at a moment where um

They’ve just scored a four tro so the game wasn’t really in the balance but they powered home they the fact that they went for the corner red and kicked the points when they didn’t need to they didn’t really need an extra try but they they wanted to make a statement to this

French team and to the rest of Europe that they’re here to be taken just as seriously as they were last year and like they’ve got now got a 9-day turnaround into Italy game then they welcome you know what we expect is going to be a very poor Welch team to Dublin

Then you go to twick them essentially what is going to be the the the the key game in in the rest of the tournament because Scotland are come to town a week later and you know you would expect them to be Scotland and Dublin like it’s it’s

Opened up Beauty for them this was the hard game the hardest game on their agenda and they made it look so easy not a bad night for Peter Mahan to take over as Captain it is of course the the fourth time since 1972 that Ireland have

Beaten France in France and uh he spoke afterwards just uh about Joe McCarthy just also what tonight’s win means to him I think it comes back to again he had some great moments in the game and then you know the moments that you need

To get rid of he did that you know what I mean moved on from you know he had a penalty in the second half you know just got on with the game and and Contin continue to get better and better and um you know that’s something we have to

Hang our head on at the moment and and you know you saw it from from young guys and old guys alike um you know just just just playing the game and uh I thought he was so standing tonight I don’t think it gets any better really um you

Know the the stress of the last couple of days i’ given the whole L up for a win tonight away from home first game up Friday night in Marse in the v Drome I’d have been a happy man packing the whole lot in today tomorrow morning if if you

Would give me a chance to to take a win and um you know trying to say something no you going to pack get all in no I’m not um no it’s has to be right up there you know I think it’s I said inside it was the biggest margin that we’ve beaten

France but you know I remember as a young flight you know watching Irish teams and you’d be hoping you You’ hang on in there you know what I mean whereas you know it’s different animal now uh so what about the setpiece well I mean the line out was superb you know Dan Sheen’s

Throwing Burns calling I thought France could it like if France watched Ireland at the World Cup you would have thought they were going to throw a few bodies they got their team selection wrong like I mean I know I said it yesterday when we talk like I just can’t believe they

Didn’t pick Cameron walk one of the best line out operators in the world against what was a struggling Irish lineup it made no sense to me I didn’t think the selection of Mo really worked out either so I think they they kind of got a couple of keys selections wrong but um

Massive fering C for Paul conell would you have to say because he was under pressure like it’s absolutely I suppose they got it wrong in the line out where it worked was in the scrum where even without vmsa they were the dominant for course and when they brought on P solo

To lagi and the new front row all at once they they blitzed Ireland and that’s an area I think when you come up against your France and South Africa in particular maybe England but maybe maybe not I’m not not quite sure that’s where Ireland can’t that’s where teams will

Look at Ireland and think they can get on top of them but not many teams can out scrummage that Irish pack and but even with McCarthy’s size in there that is that’s something they can they can really hone in on this week John foggy won’t be happy with the way the scrum

Went um I mean Dixon I think did a little bit of leveling up across the game as well there was a few that went went again I mean there was one where she and went to ground that could have been a reset he gives a penalty that was

A pretty pivotal moment because it just came after um the Jack crowy had gone up and won the ball and got a penalty given against him which I thought was a very harsh call and could have turned the game like that was a big moment but um

Like Gabriel legs goes up down and scores a fairly dubious try but the way irand responded to that was very impressive again so they overcome I mean the scrum can get on top of you we saw we’ve seen him big games at the World Cup in the last couple years if your

Scrums going you know that no scrum no Inn line but AR were able to cope and played our way around it there wasn’t a whole lot of scrums but it’s still an area to have to work on yeah there’s no other scrum I would say in the Six

Nations that have what what France have I mean you know you mentioned England I don’t see them on the same level at all but it is still you know the Reliance on Andrew Porter even though Keenan hey did do well when he came on but when Porter

Goes off for that hia you are kind of panicking a little bit I know we had the jury um that we had up on line earlier this week and I think most people the one where predicted in our win was it yes it was it was I think most people

Answered the question who’s Ireland’s most important player and usually the answer was Johnny se but s Porter now so um look the fact that we’re sitting here talking about a record win in France and kind of picking holes in the performance like just BS really well and you know

Like Andy farell has never I think shied away from the Ambitions of this team they went to the World Cup believing that they could win us um there’s no doubt now that they I I believe that they won’t shy away from the talk of winning back-to-back Grant slams like R

Said it it really opens up nicely for them now whereas I think maybe Irish teams in the past maybe would have been a little bit afraid it could have come across as arrogant or cocky but I think internally now that that’s would be massive driving ambition for them but

What they’re able to achieve in a short space of time just bow so well for what they can achieve over next year and we have people I mean all I have to do is look the replies my Twitter people saying ah they didn’t do when a matter

At the World Cup but all they can do is you know rise to the challenges that are ahead so win a grand slam then go to South Africa beat them twice then come back and beat New Zealand and and Joe Schmid Australia in the November and go

Beating for the year like that’s all they that’s all they can aspire to do and you can you can be sure that that Farrell is very good at theming or kind of coming up with reason or things that they can aim for because the World Cup’s

Too far away to think about right now you know the 2027 is a world away so they’ve got to keep H motivated but they look like a a seriously motivated team out there I thought Robbie heno was immense as well I mean obviously he plays most for his rugby at 12 it’s not

An easy switch to go from 12 to 13 I know he’s played low to 13 um across the course of his career but I thought he was excellent for for lster against Leicester a couple of weeks ago and didn’t really miss Gary ringrose and I I

Was a little bit concerned I have to say I just think ringrose is generally so important to Ireland’s overall play but didn’t really miss a beat at all and again I think that’s a sign of how just how comfortable everyone is within the system that you have guys who are able

To slot in and out and that’s a massive credit I think to the coaches as well as the players yeah I think they should keep marciel on the Six Nations itin ah look me I have to say if the fans looked like they were enjoying themselves in terms

Of just being a little bit warmer than it would have been in Paris this time of year it was a great place to watch a game it was such a cool Stadium I like I you know I’d love to see Ireland take a game the cork someday and just kind of

Change it up it’s lovely to I don’t know may I said I’ve said before this week we’re so lucky that we get to go to all these games but it is nice to have a fresh place on the itinerary and um it was an incredible experience tonight and

AR be quite happy to come back here it’s a bit like Chicago it’s got its own place in the p no zombie they had the Irish fans I don’t know if you noticed like separated around the stadium so there was Pockets it wasn’t just like one big crew but they made themselves

Hur I mean PHS V Roy ringing around a few times as the players were doing their lap of Honor oay Olay was ringing around so like petery we just heard him in the clip there summed it up well I thought I mean we’re all used to being

Scared by you know Irish teams coming to France and to come here and score five tries a record win is just immense really so it was just such a positive night yeah know it absolutely was well a magnificent night that is it from us the Six Nations is up and running thanks for Watching