Rugby win sets up mouthwatering tie with england

Meath Sportsperson of the Year Devin Toner featured prominently at the Aviva yesterday evening as Ireland’s recorded a merited 18-11 Six Nations victory over France.

The Moynalvey man was replaced in the closing stages after producing a great performance.

Johnny Sexton scored 15 points in Ireland’s ninth consecutive victory on his return from a 12-week concussion lay-off.

The victory sets up a potential Six Nations title decider against England on Sunday, 1st March, a game that will clash with Meath’s crucial NFL Div 2 game against Roscommon in Kiltoom.

Ireland head coach Joe Schmidt praised his team’s defence and staying power following the victory.

“I think we just survived and we can be really proud of the effort we took to do it. We managed to dig deep and survive,” the coach commented in a RTE interview.

“I think we need a breather after that. There’s some pretty tired bodies. And we made a mountain of tackles in that last quarter. I think the players deserve a fair bit of merit because they managed to do so.”

Ireland - Rob Kearney, Tommy Bowe, Jared Payne, Robbie Henshaw, Simon Zebo, Jonathan Sexton, Conor Murray; Jack McGrath, Rory Best, Mike Ross, Devin Toner, Paul O’Connell, Peter O’Mahony, Sean O’Brien, Jamie Heaslip. Subs - Sean Cronin, Cian Healy, Martin Moore, Iain Henderson, Jordi Murphy, Isaac Boss, Ian Madigan, Felix Jones.