Ronan O’Gara highlights reason he is adamant Ireland weren’t that bad vs France

A man who often speaks sense.

At loosehead: Andrew Porter, Paddy McCarthy and Jack Boyle were all missing; meaning the fourth and fifth-choice men - Jeremy Loughman and Michael Milne - were selected.

Fullbacks Hugo Keenan and Mack Hansen were both out, while Ireland's best player in November, Ryan Baird, is also crocked.

At centre, Bundee Aki is suspended and Robbie Henshaw remains injured.

After the 36-14 loss to Les Bleus, this situation was not talked about nearly as much as the play which went on at the Stade de France, which saw Ireland beaten soundly in the air, and often bullied by up front and outwide.

However, speaking to SportsJOE, Ronan O'Gara sympathised with the Irish team and their injury woes.

He said: "When you take out Aki, Keenan, Lowe, Henshaw, Furlong, Baird, and one or two more. Ireland have never, and will never cope with that amount of talent taken out of their team.

"There's players coming behind them, but a lot of the guys I mentioned there are world-class players. No team will be able to cope, especially Ireland, they will always struggle when they're missing eight of their starters, it's more than half your team.

"That has been brushed under the carpet and hasn't been alluded to enough if you ask me."

On the play itself, O'Gara added: "What's very important is that Ireland found solutions. At 29-0, the biggest cheer in the ground was the fact that when the stadium announcer announced the French score and then they said, Ireland 'Zero', the whole crowd were loving it.

"You can be sure they wanted to nil Ireland and they would have got huge satisfaction. Then all of a sudden, Ireland score out of, shall we say it wasn't a glaring opportunity. It was a bit of chaos and a bit of dog by Ireland.

"Then they score another try and all of a sudden, 29-14, they have a penalty on the half by a line.

"Then you have a big kick for touch where you need to find touch 10 metres out where the way the line-up was going, the way the forwards were kind of, I suppose, tuned into the drive. You can get to 29-21."