{"id":424614,"date":"2025-09-14T21:15:17","date_gmt":"2025-09-14T21:15:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/424614\/"},"modified":"2025-09-14T21:15:17","modified_gmt":"2025-09-14T21:15:17","slug":"france-edge-ireland-in-womens-rugby-world-cup-quarter-final-thriller","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/424614\/","title":{"rendered":"France edge Ireland in Women’s Rugby World Cup quarter-final thriller"},"content":{"rendered":"

France overturned a 13-point half-time deficit to beat Ireland 18-13 in a thrilling Women’s Rugby World Cup quarter-final in Exeter on Sunday.<\/p>\n

Les Bleues, from 13-0 down at the break after playing into a strong wind, scored 18 unanswered points at a rain-swept Sandy Park as they made it nine wins in a row against Ireland.<\/p>\n

Watch the 2025 Women’s Rugby World Cup live and on-demand via Stan Sport.<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

France were behind until 13 minutes from time when Joanna Grisez sprinted the length of a field for a superb try to nudge France, fourth in the world rankings to Ireland’s fifth place, into a 15-13 lead.<\/p>\n

Morgane Bourgeois then extended France’s advantage to five points with a penalty four minutes from time to leave Ireland needing a try to draw level and an ensuing conversion to snatch victory.<\/p>\n

But France, who received three yellow cards during the match, clung on with 14 players on the field, defending a line-out close to their own line as Ireland lost possession with the final play of the game.<\/p>\n

Les Bleues will face the winners of Sunday’s other quarter-final between favourites England, the tournament hosts, and Scotland in a last-four clash in Bristol on Saturday.<\/p>\n

“The first half was really tough with the wind and everything,” said France No 8 Charlotte Escudero, the player of the match.<\/p>\n

“But second half we did some amazing plays and we won and we’re so happy,” added Escudero, who scored the first of France’s two tries.<\/p>\n

– Ireland ‘just sad’ –<\/strong><\/p>\n

Ireland, who didn’t even qualify for the last World Cup, in 2022, were left to think of what might have been.<\/p>\n

“We’re just sad,” Ireland centre Eve Higgins told the BBC.<\/p>\n

“We came very close to a semi-final. That was the goal. We had moments where we knew we could have scored the points that would have been be enough.”<\/p>\n

Ireland took just six minutes to open the scoring when prop Linda Djougang powered over for a try from close range.<\/p>\n

Dannah O’Brien was off target with the conversion but Ireland were boosted by a yellow card for France’s Rose Bernadou.<\/p>\n

And Ireland doubled their lead in the 24th minute when, after the returning Aoife Wafer went close, full-back Stacey Flood crossed France’s line.<\/p>\n

O’Brien’s conversion drifted wide again\u00a0but the fly-half did land a 38th-minute penalty to extend Ireland’s lead to 13-0.<\/p>\n

France captain Manae Feleu was sin-binned on the stroke of half-time after the lock pulled down a maul.<\/p>\n

But Ireland, despite being encamped on Les Bleues’ line and taking the ball through 35 phases, were denied a try by superb defence before they eventually lost the ball in contact as France, the seven-time World Cup bronze medallists, stayed in touch.<\/p>\n

It was a key moment in the game and France eventually got on the scoreboard through a Bourgeois penalty early in the second half.<\/p>\n

Ireland were reduced to 14 players when Grace Moore was yellow-carded for a head-high tackle in the 59th minute.<\/p>\n

Moments later, France put the ball through the hands and Escudero went through a gap in the depleted Ireland defence for a well-taken try.<\/p>\n

Bourgeois landed an excellent conversion in the conditions, with Ireland now leading 13-10 heading into the final quarter.<\/p>\n

Ireland were pressing for what could have been a decisive try, deep into French territory, when they lost possession and a superb counter-attack saw Les Bleues take the lead for the first time in the 67th minute with a brilliant length of the field try from right wing Grisez.<\/p>\n

Bourgeois was unable to convert on this occasion but still kicked eight precious points in total.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"France overturned a 13-point half-time deficit to beat Ireland 18-13 in a thrilling Women’s Rugby World Cup quarter-final…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":424615,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5309],"tags":[2000,299,36,4214],"class_list":{"0":"post-424614","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-france","8":"tag-eu","9":"tag-europe","10":"tag-france","11":"tag-rugby-world-cup"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115204726755413194","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/424614","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=424614"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/424614\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/424615"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=424614"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=424614"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=424614"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}