Watch: 14-man France score sublime try against Ireland

France have lit up these Six Nations with their try-scoring antics and they were at it again against Ireland. Despite having burly lock Bernard le Roux in the sin-bin for tripping Irish wing Keith Earls, they came out of the ten-minute period with 14 menand were actually seven points better off – and it was all due to this sublime score.

How about Gael Fickou dealing with that bounce pass? It’s one of those things that always appears to catch defences off-guard, when the ball skips off the turf. And then France captain Charles Ollivon gallops away from the cover.

But before all that there was a gallery of offloads from France’s stars. And look who was in the middle for all the action – you guessed it, scrum-half Antoine Dupont. The nine is on fire at the moment and the try was simply borne from beautiful stuff.

A word for Fickou too. Before this score, he made a telling intervention.

James Lowe thinks he has scored against France (Getty Images)

With Ireland wing James Lowe getting the ball wide-out (and thumping through contact out there too) he thought he had squeezed in for a score. But Fickou had motored over in cover as a final tackle was put in and pushed Lowe’s legs towards touch.

The wing’s foot grazed touch, according to the Television Match Official (TM) and it was ruled ‘no try.’ Shortly after, France got the try you can see above. The centre will be very pleased with his first-half performance at the Aviva Stadium.

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