The Irish Times' Gerry Thornley reports from Ireland's defeat to France in their Rugby World Cup warm-up clash in Bordeaux.
"To a degree, Ireland’s second-half comeback and the narrow failure to extract something from the game should give them the confidence and the extra desire to avenge the loss next Saturday, all the more so with the likes of Paul O’Connell and Jamie Heaslip likely to start [next weekend's re-match in Dublin] along with Marc Lièvremont’s stated intention to give the rest of his squad game time.
“But it’s France again at home,” countered Kidney. “So there’s easier matches to play, it’s not exactly a confidence-builder you’re going into play, you know? The French lads will change, you don’t know how many. But whether France change nobody, eight or 15, it doesn’t really matter. France can turn out three, four teams like that.”
Yet, allowing for this result, inaccuracy in possession in the first-half, the way Rory Best’s darts were dismantled by an exceptional French line-out and the four penalties at scrum time, the positives outweighed the negatives."
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