Ireland leaders lament poor showing against flourishing France

It was a bright start for the visitors in Paris, but Ireland failed to capitalise and ridiculous French flair saw the hosts run out to a 22-0 lead at the break.

The French backline continued to fizz in the second stanza, but handling errors let them down. Ireland came back to give the scoreline some respectability, but ultimately it was never going to be anything other than France's night in Paris.

"Congratulations to France, they were on a different level at times there," said Farrell after the match.

"Obviously, France were playing a different game to us in the first half. You've got to show a bit of fight and intent, and we lacked a bit of that in the first half, which is very disappointing.

"More than a bit of a response [from us] in the second half, but they were worthy winners, that's for sure.

"[The replacements had an impact], they did. Again, it wasn't rocket science. They just had a bit of go-forward, a bit of grunt in the way that they went about their business.

"We got a couple of tries on the back of that, and it's a pity we couldn't get a few more in the end because every point matters in this competition, as we know."

Doris lamented their poor defensive effort and lack of positive results from their kick-and-chase game.

"Definitely not how we hoped or foresaw the start of our campaign going," he said.

"[We] left ourselves too tall a mountain to climb in the first half. Lacking a bit of bite, definitely. Some class from France, but not good enough from us. We didn't shut them down early enough.

"We allowed them to play some of their flowing, attacking rugby. Not good enough from us in the collision. Our kick chase let us down, connection-wise.

"Some grit and determination in the second half, good impact from our bench, but yeah, very disappointing overall."

Ireland face Italy in Dublin on 14 February.