France 34-24 Ireland
Three second-half tries weren’t enough in a gallant Irish comeback in Bordeaux as Noel McNamara’s U20's side fell to a 34-24 in the opening weekend of the Six Nations.
Trailing 22-3 at the interval, the visitors appeared to be staring down the barrel of a heavy defeat, but a penalty try, and efforts from Jonny Stewart and Dave McCarthy, reduced the deficit to just three points with just over five minutes remaining at the Stade Chaban-Delmas.
However a fifth try from the hosts late on, with substitute prop Demba Bamba powering over, sealed a 10-point victory.
The hosts began in superb style with Romain Ntamack stamping his class all over proceedings.
Son of French rugby legend Emile, the out-half scored two first-half tries, was flawless from the tee and looked a threat every time he got his hands on the ball.
Sandwiched between his brace was a training ground move that saw flanker Ibrahim Diallo take a pop pass from a five metre lineout to peel around the cover and dash over.
Harry Byrne’s penalty was all Ireland had to show on the scoreboard with poor handling causing many attacks to come a cropper in a nervy opening 40 minutes.
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After the resumption however Ireland took the game to France and fully deserved their penalty try when captain Tommy O'Brien and full-back Michael Silvester attempted to ground Byrne’s through ball.
Ireland used a subsequent penalty to set up another close-in maul and scrum-half Stewart brilliantly broke from the back to evade Lamothe along the right touchline and dive over in the corner. Byrne swung over an excellent conversion to cut the gap on the hour mark before Jules Gimbert stemmed the tide with France's fourth try on the night.
There was still time for further drama.
James McCarthy drew in two defenders past halfway and sent O'Brien flying up the left touchline before his return pass put the Munster Academy back racing over for a try to the left of the posts.
Byrne, who was increasingly influential in exposing the space behind the French defence, added a well-struck conversion to give Ireland a real shot at 27-24 down and seven minutes left to play.
It simply wasn't to be however and substitute Bamba sealed the win for France with a try in the final minute of the game.
"It was a very poor start from us," captain O’Brien conceded afterwards.
"Then we got it back to 27-24 so we’re bitterly disappointed not to come away with the win in the end. The game just got away from us a little bit.
"There were a lot of positives to build on from that second half. We want to build our Six Nations on that second half 40 minutes."
Ireland: Michael Silvester; Peter Sullivan, David McCarthy, Tommy O’Brien, James McCarthy; Harry Byrne, Jonny Stewart; Jordan Duggan, Ronan Kelleher, Jack Aungier; Cormac Daly, Jack Dunne; Matthew Dalton, Aaron Hall, Jack O’Sullivan.
Replacements: Diarmuid Barron, James French, Tom O’Toole, Ronan Coffey, Sean Masterson, Hugh O’Sullivan, Angus Curtis, Angus Kernohan.
