France hammer Ireland to qualify for Student World Cup semi-finals
IRELAND'S dream of a place in the final stages of the Students Rugby League
World Cup were dashed by a mixture of French skill and Irish errors under
a hot Australian winter sun.

In the build-up to the match the Irish were working out how many points they
needed to score to see them through to the knock out stages of the main
competition.

But a mixture of French skill and their own mistakes saw them with little
but defeat to take away from Brisbane's Griffith University Nathan complex.
In the end the Irish lost prop Liam Julian with a shoulder injury, had
Martin Cormack sent off for tripping and man of the match Luke Garnett ended
the match in the sin-bin for lying on.

At the request of the Irish team there was a minute's silence before the
game memory of the victims of the London bombings.

But once the match got under way the French seemed almost able to score at
will.

Guillaume Reffle opened their account in the third minute with an
unconverted try followed by two penalties from Dominique Vidal.
Robin Villa added another try on 13 minutes after livewire halfback Gregory
Tiquet had made the initial break and Vidal's conversion made it 14-0.
Cormack was then given the red card for tripping by New South Wales referee
Matthew Hawkins and almost at once Nicholas Bouillet was over for a try
converted by Robin Villa.

That was on 19 minutes and by half time Bruno Ormeno had bagged a brace of
tries and fullback Cedric Olieu had also picked up a couple.

Vidal and Robin Villa landed two conversions and although Keith Armstrong
got Ireland on the scoreboard with a touchdown converted by Danny Shaw the
score at the break was 44-6 in France's favour.

And things did not get any better for France's Celtic cousins.

It took the pacey Olieu just two minutes of the second half to complete his
hat-trick with a sensational try. He took a bomb deep in his own half,
bounced through a posse of midfield defenders and then raced the remainder
of the field to touchdown. Robin Villa bagged the extra two points to see
50 points come up for his country.

And the tries continued to come. Bouillet went in for his second try and

Christophe Calegari joined him on the score sheet. Both were converted by

Robin Villa and the Irish were running themselves to a standstill just to
try and stem the blue tide which was engulfing them.

There was a fleeting spot of encouragement for the Irish when full-back Paul
O'Connor found his way over the line for a try converted by Shaw but that
was scant consolation.

Before the end Thomas Valette, Sebastien Amigas and Tiquet had all rubbed

further salt in the Irish wounds. Fortunately for the Irish only Tiquet?s
try, his second, was converted, this time by Vidal.

If there is any consolation for the last score it did go to the men in green
with Danny Shaw taking advantage of a rare French defensive mix-up on their
own line to score and then add the conversion.

Matchfacts.
France:
1 Cedric Olieu
5 Robin Villa
21 Matthieu Almarcha
15 Bruno Ormeno
3 Christophe Calegari
17 Dominique Vidal
7 Gregory Tiquet
8 Sebastien Amigas
19 Sylvain Teixido
16 Marc Osmont
11 Thomas Valette
20 Romaric Bemba
13 Guillaume Reffle
Subs (all used)
10 Nicolas Bouillet
9 Romain Dintilhac
6 Sebastien Hascoet
16 Jonathan Laskowski
4 Simon Latournerie
18 Bruno Pezet
Tries: Reffle (3), R.Villa (13),Bouillet (19,48), Ormeno (20, 24), Olieu(28,
36, 42), Calegari (56), Valette (63), Vidal (67), Amigas (70), Tiquet (76)
Goals: Vidal 7; Robin Villa 6

Ireland:
1 Paul O'Connor
21 David Heathwood
19 Danny Shaw
4 James Gross
5 Ste Smith
6 Gareth Simpson
16 Chris Harwood
17 David Bulmer
9 Phil Wood
13 Liam Julian
11 Luke Garnett
12 Paul Lane
7 James Giblin
Subs (all used)
14 Shaun Quinn
15 John Clarke
8 Martin Cormack
20 Dave Hudson
18 Adam Walsh
3 Keith Armstrong.
Tries: Armstrong (39), O?Connor (52), Shaw (79).
Goals: Shaw 3.

Man of the match.
France - Cedric Olieu. The full-back scored three tries, defended well, and
looked poised and polished all afternoon.
Ireland - Luke Garnett. Garnett, despite his sin-binning, worked his socks
off both in attack and defence trying to keep the side together in the face
of tremendous difficulties.

Gamebreaker: Martin Cormack's sending off midway through the first half left the Irish with a handicap too big to overcome.

Sent off: Martin Cormack (Ireland) tripping.
Sin-binned: Luke Garnett (Ireland) Holding down.

Score sequence: 6-0; 8-0; 14-0; 20-0; 26-0; 32-0; 38-0; 44-0; 44-6; 50-6;
56-6; 56-12;62-12; 68-12; 72-12; 76-12; 82-12; 82-18.
HT 44-6.
Referee: Martin Hawkins (New South Wales)

Article by Chris Leak
10 Jul 2005