{"id":743759,"date":"2026-02-05T10:08:17","date_gmt":"2026-02-05T10:08:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/743759\/"},"modified":"2026-02-05T10:08:17","modified_gmt":"2026-02-05T10:08:17","slug":"beating-france-will-be-a-hell-of-an-achievement-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/743759\/","title":{"rendered":"Beating France will be a hell of an achievement \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

Tonight\u2019s the night. And it doesn\u2019t seem like too many are giving Ireland even a smidgeon of a chance of beating France in Paris. But Gerry Thornley reminds us that our bunch have won eight of the last 13 meetings between the nations, although, admittedly, they \u201cbludgeoned\u201d us in Dublin last time out<\/a>. Another win, though, \u201cis not beyond the bounds at all\u201d, Ireland have \u201cthe armoury to hurt France\u201d. But? \u201cIt would be a hell of an achievement.\u201d<\/p>\n

Gerry talks to Caelan Doris<\/a> and Garry Ringrose<\/a> ahead of the game, while Johnny Watterson traces the history of brothers-in-arms lining out for Ireland<\/a>. Sam and Cian Prendergast are already on that list, but they will start together for the first time this evening.<\/p>\n

Is there beef between French halfbacks Antoine Dupont and Matthieu Jalibert<\/a>? Well, John O\u2019Sullivan tells us that there\u2019s talk along those lines, but \u201cthey don\u2019t need to love each other\u201d, both of them \u201cpotential match winners\u201d. <\/p>\n

Johnny also has news on the Ireland XV team Cullie Tucker has named for Friday evening\u2019s game against England A<\/a> at Thomond Park – an experienced one it is too, six of the side already capped at senior level. <\/p>\n

In Gaelic games, Gordon Manning hears from the legend that is TJ Reid<\/a>, the 38-year-old, who has just the seven All Ireland to his name, all set for another season with Kilkenny. And Ciar\u00e1n Murphy looks back at Armagh\u2019s defeat by Donegal – was it down to Armagh\u2019s handpass dependency<\/a>, or was there more to it? <\/p>\n

In football, Czech Republic manager Miroslav Koubek says the Republic of Ireland play \u201cisland football\u201d<\/a>. Gavin Cummiskey explains whether this was a compliment or an insult. And Paul O\u2019Hehir talks to Bohemians manager Alan Reynolds ahead of his side\u2019s season opener against St Patrick\u2019s Athletic<\/a> at the Aviva Stadium on Sunday. <\/p>\n

Why are Ireland opening their Six Nations campaign on a Thursday? Because the Winter Olympics opening ceremony takes place on Friday in Milan, so a telly clash had to be avoided. Muireann Duffy brings you these and a heap more nuggets of information in her guide to the Winter Olympics<\/a>, providing you with \u201call you need to know to blag your way through it\u201d. <\/p>\n

Among the four-strong Irish team is skier Anabelle Zurbay<\/a>, Ian O\u2019Riordan chatting to the Minnesota-born teenager who first took up the sport in or around the time she learnt to walk. <\/p>\n

TV Watch<\/b>: TNT Sports 2 has more from the Winter Olympics (11am-10.45pm), curling, ice hockey and snowboarding featuring through the day, and from 2.15pm Scottie Scheffler leads the field at the Phoenix Open (Sky Sports Golf). And this evening, it\u2019s the big one: the League Two clash of Accrington Stanley and Salford City (Sky Sports Football, 8pm). (You can record France v Ireland, which starts 10 minutes later – it\u2019s on Virgin Media One and UTV). <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Tonight\u2019s the night. And it doesn\u2019t seem like too many are giving Ireland even a smidgeon of a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":743760,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5309],"tags":[2000,299,36,219950],"class_list":{"0":"post-743759","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-sports-briefing"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/116017476678510694","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/743759","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=743759"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/743759\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/743760"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=743759"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=743759"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=743759"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}