France 30 Ireland 24: Six Nations favourites edge thriller after holding off brave Irish comeback

FRANCE fended off Ireland's storming comeback to show why they are favourites for their first Six Nations crown in 12 years.

Ireland's nine-game winning run ended despite their brilliant recovery from trailing 22-7 early in the second period.

The Irish, without skipper Jonathan Sexton, were sent reeling by scrum-half Antoine Dupont's dazzling early try and full-back Melvyn Jaminet's faultless kicking.

But a blur of green cut the deficit to a point, led by clinical tries from flanker Josh van der Flier and scrum-half Jamison Gibson-Park.

The French, though, then formed a huddle, the packed crowd got behind them, and mobile prop Cyril Baille stemmed the Irish tide with a fine try.

Ireland took a penalty by Sexton's able replacement, Joey Carbery, to be only 27-24 down with seven minutes to go.

But French fans broke out into the national anthem and roared three minutes later when Jaminet sprinted over in the left corner after brilliant work from replacement lock Thibaud Flament.

The try was erased, however, as Jaminet couldn't ground the ball in Dan Sheehan's wrap tackle, although he still slotted his sixth penalty.

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Moments later, fly-half Romain Ntamack kicked the ball out to the biggest roar of the evening to leave France as the only side to win both their first two games in the tournament.

Dupont said: "We knew we needed to raise our game. Thats what we talked about all week and we were confident.

"The biggest satisfaction is that all of us rose to the challenge."

And France coach Fabien Galthie said: "It was difficult. We were up against a tough opponent. We gave everything we had for this win.

"Now we need to recover and prepare for our away games."

Arguably the best halves in world rugby, who have honed their partnership at Toulouse, Dupont and Ntamack took little more than 60 seconds to unlock Ireland's renowned defence.

After Dupont's quick throw-in and prop Uini Atonio's barging run, a surrounded Ntamack threw a no-look, one-handed offload inside to Dupont to sprint over after 67 seconds.

It was the quickest Ireland has conceded a try in the Six Nations era.

Jaminet converted and added a penalty in the seventh minute for 10-0.

France can dream of a first Grand Slam since 2010 but must win in Scotland and Wales before hosting England in the last round on March 19.

Mistakes will need to be cut out.

The old erratic streak returned when Ireland left winger Mack Hansen was gifted his first international try with Ireland 10-0 down.

From Carbery's restart, Jaminet and right winger Damian Penaud stared at each other but didnt talk, so Hansen stole the kick-off ball to scamper clear. Making his first Six Nations start, Carbery converted.

Under pressure from France's line speed, Ireland gave away a third penalty inside 16 minutes having hardly given anything when dispatching Wales 29-7 a week ago and Jaminet restored France's six-point lead.

Jaminet's reputation as a kicker is high after he landed all of his kicks when New Zealand was beaten last November. And he made it five from five in the first half with two more tidy penalties as France got on top of Ireland's scrum, with Ronan Kelleher off injured, before punishing an offside moments after the break.

Opportunist Ireland turned the game on its head, though, with chilling efficiency.

From a lineout maul, the Irish bulldozed France and Van der Flier peeled off. The forwards then went through ruck after ruck and scattered the French to leave Gibson-Park a free run off a ruck to the tryline.

But it's not all about Dupont and Ntamack in this exciting side.

Atonio steamed into the Irish, Dupont recycled to the onrushing Baille and he reached out in a tackle to score and shift momentum back to France - which, this time, they held onto.