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Rugby

10th Mar 2019

Jordan Larmour and two Ireland teammates had fans raving

Patrick McCarry

Stander

Whirlwind stuff.

80 minutes before Ireland faced off against France, Jordan Larmour was pitched in at No.15 for the injured Rob Kearney.

He saw an awful lot of ball and had fans across the country talking.

Larmout started off on the right note as he spotted France fullback Thomas Ramos was not covering the back-field. His chip over the top forced Damien Penaud to kick the ball out for an Irish lineout and, two minutes later, the men in green left the 22 having scored through Rory Best.

After seven minutes, though, Larmour was extremely lucky when exposed under a cross-kick from Romain Ntamack. Larmour got out-jumped by Damien Penaud but he was adjudged to have knocked on before he ran in for a try that was then chalked off.

After the quarter hour, Ireland looked dead set to get their second try after a smart piece of play involving James Ryan and Johnny Sexton. Larmour darted for the tryline with Jacob Stockdale bellowing for the ball outside him.

Larmour backed himself but found himself smothered and the ball was ripped from his grasp for a France turnover. It really summed up the first half for Ireland as they camped out in the French half but struggled to keep that scoreboard moving.

On 25 minutes, a high clearance got France in trouble and back-pedalling. Iain Henderson walloped Yoann Huget and Larmour was there to back him up as he thumped Ramos before Peter O’Mahony got into a great position to secure the turnover.

It got better, though, around the 30-minute mark as a dancing and jigging Larmour made a line-break to put France in trouble again. The advantage was taken, this time, as France gave away a penalty, Ireland sucked men in with a maul and Johnny Sexton got the score.

Fans watching on were mostly positive about Larmour’s flying start. Iain Henderson and James Ryan got lots of praise too.

Could be the start of a real run in that position.