France staved off an Eire fightback to win 27-15 within the opening match of the 2025 Girls’s Six Nations in Belfast on Saturday.
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Each groups scored three tries apiece however whereas France’s Morgane Bourgeois was good from the kicking tee, with three conversions and two penalties, Eire missed all of their conversions.
Final season France had been runners-up to England who start their quest to win an unprecedented eighth successive title and fourth consecutive Grand Slam at dwelling to Italy on Sunday, with the Crimson Roses bidding for extra Six Nations glory forward of this 12 months’s Girls’s Rugby World Cup on dwelling soil.
However Eire, third in 2024, got here into this event with excessive hopes following a shocking victory over world champions New Zealand in September.
But it was France who led 17-5 at half-time after tries from Gabrielle Vernier and Marine Menager.
However a Forty fifth-minute purple card for Vernier gave Eire a manner again into the sport at Ravenhill.
Eire made their benefit depend as Neve Jones and Aoife Wafer together with her second strive of the match decreased the deficit to 17-15.
However that was as shut as Eire obtained, with Emilie Boulard’s late strive for France placing the sport past the attain of the hosts.
“We’re disappointed and we feel we let a result get away from us,” Eire coach Scott Bemand advised the BBC.
He added: “France are a very good team and we gave them too many soft entries early in the game. But there’s a streak of resilience in this group, we got a score back and there’s huge credit to what the forwards are doing.”
France made their early strain depend when centre Vernier marked her fiftieth cap by barging over from shut vary.
France doubled their lead when Bourgeois unselfishly despatched in Menager to assist make it 14-0 however Eire responded when Wafer powered over within the twenty first minute.
Dannah O’Brien, nevertheless, was unable to transform.
Bourgeois’s penalty prolonged France’s lead earlier than the break.
However the second-half dismissal of Vernier, who noticed a yellow card upgraded to purple for making head contact with Eve Higgins, sparked an Irish revival that noticed Jones rating a strive from a rolling maul.
Wafer then arrange an thrilling end when she scored her second strive of the match however a late Bourgeois penalty and Boulard’s strive noticed France pull clear.
Scotland face Wales within the event’s second match later Saturday.
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