Ireland head coach Scott Bemand insists his team will come back stronger after they were outclassed by France in the second half of their Guinness Six Nations meeting in Clermont-Ferrard.
Francois Ratier’s side pulled clear late on in front of a raucous 17,000 supporters at Stade Marcel Michelin, scoring three tries after the break to secure a 26-7 bonus-point win.
It could have been so different for Ireland, whose first-half dominance wasn't reflected on the scoreboard, seeing three tries ruled out by the TMO before the sides went in level at 7-7 at the break.
"It's a bit frustrating," Bemand said afterwards at Stade Marcel-Michelin. "This is an incredibly hard place to come. Congratulations to France. I think that's the best I've seen them play in this competition."
The first half had been dominated by Ireland, who enjoyed just under three quarters of the territory, but France have been a second-half team in this Six Nations, scoring 66 of their previous 78 points after the break in the opening rounds.
And the hosts eventually wore Ireland down with two tries in the final quarter to kill the tie.
"When you get those chances, and you get those chances to build scoreboard pressure, you have to take them," the head coach added. "At half-time, I was incredibly proud of how the girls started and kept going.
"We know that France have come back stronger in the first two games. We tried to live with the physicality.
"I felt we lived with it in the first half and tried to live it into the second. I think what we've produced there is a proper test match, and we want people back in Ireland to see what the girls are doing and continue to get on board with it."
Ireland’s wait for a win against the French will reach a decade by the time they next face off, while they have still never beaten Les Bleues in France.
But Bemand (above) is adamant his side’s belief won’t be dented.
"I genuinely think we keep getting better. It took England eight years to come to France and win.
"So we knew the enormity of the task that we were facing and, as an occasion, you don't get anything more hostile than this.
"It's an incredible atmosphere to play in and you saw a group that in the main handled it. And every time we get exposed to this level of rugby, level of competition against one of the one of the World Cup contenders, then we’ve got the opportunity to learn more than anybody else.
"So if we can leave here more connected, take our lessons from the pitch, take our lessons from fine margins, and we'll just keep getting better and keep going after that."
With Ireland’s two toughest away games behind them, they will now head into the fallow week with home games against Wales and Scotland to come, the latter of which will be in front of more than 20,000 people at Aviva Stadium next month.
Two more wins will at least guarantee another top-three finish, and give them three wins in the Six Nations for the first time since Bemand took over.
"We said from the outset that this game, the result, wouldn't make or break the Six Nations.
"People talk about missed opportunities, but we know how hard it is to come to France to get a result. We said we'd go after the performance.
"We've asked some pretty tough questions of France today. I think France had to go deeper, play better than they've done previously in this competition and probably for a while. So we're moving in the right direction.
"As we close the gap, next year we get them over to Ireland, and that presents more opportunities. We've got a run of test matches, both the next two games in Ireland and then the Global Series in the summer. So we've got a group that's young that's now becoming incredibly experienced.
"The more layers we can get into that group, the more we'll be able to produce, the more we'll be able to handle pressure moments within the game, which then become the fine margins. You control the fine margins and you get those moments right. Suddenly it can look very different.
"I think the rhetoric today is that we've played well, we've got a good performance out there.
"We just start nailing some of those smaller fine margins and the scoreboard looks different," he added.
