Sport generally offers a pocketful of regrets to the losing team through the medium of hindsight, tantalised by an alternative universe with the promise of a different outcome. It is distilled into moments. Ireland would like to have several again from the opening 20 minutes of a chastening Six Nations championship defeat to France.
A window of opportunity is fleeting by nature. It closes without warning. Ireland discovered this to their cost during that first quarter when they were utterly dominant everywhere but the scoreboard.
There was a bright vibrancy to the way in which the home side started the match, dominating possession and territory, a nice fluency and width to their patterns.
In those circumstances it should have extracted a toll, but France refused to pay, and Ireland failed to enforce their superiority in the most tangible of forms, points. Every chance that goes abegging increases the confidence and resolve in the defending team and niggles away at their opponents' belief.
Ireland opened with a 70-second salvo that promised so much. Caelan Doris, outstanding for much of the game, caught the opening kick-off three paces inside his 22.
From there the home side, through the medium of muscular carries and a Jamison Gibson-Park box-kick, superbly caught by Calvin Nash, moved the ball to inside the French 10-metre line. A free-kick and three penalties ensued as they squeezed France until the first of those windows materialised in the fifth minute.
Sam Prendergast kicked to the corner, Tadhg Beirne won a lineout, Dan Sheehan took possession, and the maul inched forward. Ireland scrumhalf Jamison Gibson-Park tapped the hooker who broke off the maul on the short-side.
A nanosecond to choose, try to barge over or give his scrumhalf, who had a slight angle on the defence, a pass after the first half-stride. Sheehan pursued the first option and was grounded short by Thibaud Flament. Antoine Dupont hovered near the passing channel, which may have informed the Irish player’s decision.
If Sheehan had been able to get the pass to Gibson-Park, it would have yielded a try. The window slammed shut in a millisecond. France were offside. Take two. Prior to Sheehan taking the tap penalty, Doris spoke to Prendergast, Gibson-Park and his pack where he outlined a pre-called move.
When the Irish hooker was grounded short, Gibson-Park ignored the first pod of forwards and hit Doris with a zippy, flat pass. Another window of opportunity but it was closed emphatically when Grégory Alldritt and Paul Boudehent managed to hold the Irish captain up over the line.
The alternative was for Doris to flick on a pass to Andrew Porter who had only French outhalf Romain Ntamack barring his path to the try-line, two metres out. Two chances, nul points, as the visitors might have chirped. After eight minutes France had made 38 tackles, missed none. Ireland had made none and missed two opportunities.
That was the flavour of the ball game, and it continued in the same vein. Opportunities came and went, Irish players dithered as if spooked by option-taking that had gone awry. Matches of this ilk don’t let players breathe, never mind pause to consider. It’s about instinct, habits and technique.
Robbie Henshaw and Josh van der Flier would both like a mulligan in taking another option when attacking inside the French 22 in the second half, albeit not even St Jude Thaddeus could have rescued the home side from defeat at that point.
France showed Ireland the folly of their ways when the boot was on the other foot and they were ruthless in making and taking chances, especially when Ireland were short-handed because of two sin bins.
France scored 24 points in 12 minutes and 34 without reply from 15-13 down. It was a stark reminder of Ireland’s first-half shortcomings in the scoring zone.
While Doris led his team superbly, his primary support in quality terms was fullback Hugo Keenan. Rested for the win over Wales, he channelled that pent-up energy, or perhaps disappointment, into producing an imperious display in all facets of the game.
Whatever know-how former Dublin footballer Brian Fenton dispensed about aerial duels in his time with the Ireland squad, Keenan lapped up. The Irish fullback was brilliant in the air, whether chasing box-kicks or fielding them and also memorably winning a restart with a one-handed tap.
It is not about taking his consistent excellence for granted; there are just days when it’s acceptable to marvel at how he continues to push those boundaries.
His 50/22 late on that gave Ireland the field position from which they launched that late flurry of points but what elevated Keenan’s performance and in some respects offered a counterpoint to the woes that his team suffered in not being able to exploit good, quick ball, was the fullback’s sharp and incisive decision-making.
He was Ireland’s pimpernel, widely sought but only once caught shy of the gainline. He caused France problems in the wider channels, on one occasion stepping inside both Pierre-Louis Barassi and Yoram Moefana. There were other examples, the only disappointment was that his ability to find space was underutilised.
France were worthy winners, a fusion of power and skill, which they brought both to bear at crucial times. In essence it was a game of two quarters and France won both, the first in defence, the second in attack.
