"It's in France's Hands Now" - Ireland's Tadhg Beirne reveals why the Six Nations is France's to lose

France ran out a blistering hot start in Saint-Denis, to take a 22-0 lead into the break. Overall, Les Bleus bagged five tries against Andy Farrell's injury hit side, as Louis Bielle-Biarrey (two), Matthieu Jalibert, Charles Ollivon and Theo Attissgobe all crossed the whitewash in the French capital. Ireland's Tadhg Beirne spoke about how the 2026 Six Nations is now France's to lose, following their first round bonus point triumph to commence their title defence.

"It's in France's hand now, they've got a bonus point win against us. You know, the Championship is in their hands." Beirne said to RTE radio. "All we can do now is regroup, dust ourselves off and make sure we're better next week against Italy and go from there and make sure we don't have another loss in this tournament."

Looking at his side's underwhelming performance at the Stade de France, Beirne expressed how his side were unable to match the physicality the French brought to the fray. Missed tackles were a definite detriment to Ireland's defeat, with Jalibert's try in particular witnessing three failed hits on the out-half.

"I think that first half performance was nowhere near where we expect and the scoreline on half time was probably deservedly in France's way with the way we played unfortunately.

"I think physically they probably dominated us, they won the aerial battle and then any bouncing ball, you know how dangerous France are and we found ourselves underneath our post a couple of times and we had a bit of a mountain to climb in that second half. We gave it a good crack in the second half but ultimately it was too big of a mountain for us to get back into the game."

Whilst plenty of the pre-match hype surrounded the return of Antoine Dupont to the France XV, almost a year after the was side-lined in the very same fixture from last year's Championship, Fabien Galthie's men showcased multiple threats outside of their magical scrum half. The likes of fullback Thomas Ramos and 2025 Player of the Championship Louis Bielle-Biarrey once again tore up in the tournament opener, with Beirne left scrambling for answers on how to stop the star-studded back-line.

"That's the danger that they have, the speed they have, the skill they have, you see Dupont, you see the space and then Ramos - to have the knowledge to just kick it through - and then obviously you have Bielle-Biarrey with the speed on the wing. Any bouncing ball you have to be on it. You can't lose a second against these guys otherwise they're going the length and I think they showed their class."

The second round of the 2026 Six Nations gets underway this weekend, with Ireland back home to host Italy, who are riding a wave of momentum after getting a close-fought win over Scotland. Meanwhile, France head out to Cardiff as the heavy favourites for their clash with Wales at the Principality Stadium.