Backsides to Basics

The stereotypical image of the French playing with flair and the rest of us trying to squeeze them to death whenever we can was sent to the recycling bin with sundry other misleading rugby cliches over the weekend. The Biarritz and Toulouse forwards did a mighty job on the Irish challengers, splintering their front rows with a combination of canny technique and pure, undiluted brute force. Decent props - international players - such as CJ Van De Linde, Cian Healy and Jon Hayes were popping out of scrums, casting desperate looks at the refs in the hope that they would take a sympathetic view of things. All in vain, my brave boys. They'll return home to Dublin and Limerick and plot their revenge. Outfits as clever and determined as Munster and Leinster will learn their lessons.