It's not often that an Irish team gets compared to the All Blacks, but coming out of the Principality Stadium last Saturday, that was the opinion of many of the Welsh fans who had watched the comprehensive Ireland victory.
In the build up to the match, all of Wales expected an emotional reaction to the return of Warren Gatland and as always in Cardiff, there was incredible atmosphere inside the stadium for the anthems.
It didn’t last long. The intensity, accuracy and quality of Ireland's performance in the first 20 minutes set the tone for the game, and highlighted the gulf in class and confidence between the two teams.
Andy Farrell’s side showed many of the qualities that we have always associated with New Zealand at their best. There is no higher praise.
Top quality coaching, well conditioned, confident players together with a consistency in selection, have laid the foundations for this Irish squad to win six consecutive Test matches - New Zealand, New Zealand, South Africa, Fiji, Australia, Wales…. very impressive!
Yes, Wales were poor and never really caused Ireland too many difficulties, but it was a really positive start to the 2023 Six Nations Championship.
That victory nicely sets up the first ever Six Nations contest between the top two ranked teams in world rugby and there’s even more significance to the tie given what is coming up on the horizon.
While I’ve always believed international rugby is about winning the next match, and not about focussing on a Rugby World Cup cycle, I’m strongly of the opinion that Ireland’s best chance of lifting the Webb Ellis trophy in October starts with beating France this weekend and winning this year’s championship.
In my mind, France, as hosts, will start as favourites for the World Cup and it’s key that Ireland build on the performance against Wales, by beating a very good French team in Dublin, the only tier one team that Farrell has not beaten as head coach.
IRELAND v FRANCE: ALL YOU NEED TO KNOW
This is the last reference I’ll make to the World Cup until the Six Nations championship is over.
Everyone - players, supporters and the Irish media - knows that we have underperformed at recent World Cups.
Post-mortems and reviews have provided explanations or excuses, but the quality in this group of players, together with a very strong management team, brings real optimism and a chance to do something that no other Irish team has managed to achieve.
For some teams that burden of expectation would weigh heavily on their shoulders, but I don’t feel that with this group of players or coaches.
As the number one ranked team in the world, they are becoming used to the favourites tag and when you listen to the players being interviewed, they don’t try to play down their qualities as a team.
One reason is that the core of this team is the Leinster team who are unbeaten this season.
They have brought the confidence that winning brings into the Irish set-up and together with Farrell’s continuity of selection – going back to the New Zealand tour, through the autumn and last weekend – it has fostered a belief and a level of comfort in the heat of battle.
Looking forward to the French game, I wouldn’t read too much into France’s performance against Italy.
They won’t be happy with almost any aspect of that performance , but they did enough to win and, like Ireland, they have shown through the autumn internationals that they know how to win close matches
Last weekend their Achilles’ heel was a complete lack of discipline.
At any level of rugby, any team that loses the penalty count 18-7 should struggle to compete, let alone win a match.
They will not be so indisciplined this weekend or the referee, Wayne Barnes, could have a big influence on the outcome of the match.
By contrast, Ireland are generally very disciplined and it will be crucial on Saturday that France don’t get easy penalty opportunities to dominate field position and build pressure.
I think France will approach the match like many of their Top 14 teams who play Irish opposition in European competition.
France will feel that they must physically overpower Ireland – like they did last year and like La Rochelle did two years running against Leinster – to build the foundations for victory.
Interestingly, France struggled with their lineout in Rome and only managed to disrupt 10% of the Italian line outs whereas the Ireland lineout, under Paul O’Connell’s influence, has looked untouchable and their ability to compete on opposition line out will also cause the French some problems.
The key for Ireland, and particularly Conor Murray and Johnny Sexton, is to control territory and possession and with their high intensity, multi-phase attack, France, despite the influence of Shaun Edwards, will find it very hard to stop them creating opportunities.
This will be a big challenge, but I have no doubt that if Ireland go out and perform at the levels have reached across the last six Tests they will win the game and take another step closer to their first championship in five years.
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